First off it is with my deepest condolences that i write this entry today. Even tho its been many years removed i still find myself driven by nostalgia. Mr Degroot was my art teacher at pvhs when i was just 17, dating back some 20 years or so ago. Aside from the valuable lessons learned inside his classroom, Mr Degroot gave me my absolute most important lesson that i learned over the course of time, and its a life lesson i wont soon forget. I missed my first day of my senior year at pv because i had just lost my father to cancer. This undoubtedly lead to some pretty trying times for my family, particularly for both my mother and I. It was soon after returning to school and filling in the empty seat in his art classroom that conversation about ‘life’, in a general sense, started. At the time I was just looking for SOMETHING... anything to help ease the strain that lifes burdens had recently thrusted upon me. I wanted a dog. A puppy to (I suppose) help fill the dramatic void that seemed to be forever expanding at the time. I had my heart set on a pitbull puppy, tan with a black snout as if he just stuck his nose in soot! It just so happened that Mr Degroot had planed to end his tenure as a teacher and retire to his farm in Pennsylvania after that school year and after having served nearly an entire lifetime teaching countless students. This brings me to the reason for this nostalgic post. He had a dog that gave birth to a litter of pups of the exact coloration I set my heart on. The Universe opened its arms and wrapped them tightly around me that day, giving me the most precious life lesson of a gift I have ever received. He brought down two of the pups (a male and a female) and had me meet him at his mothers’ house in what was still west paterson at the time. Thats when my life turned full of color again. That little pup ran to me and jumped right in my arms the first second we laid eyes on one another. My friend Lauren took the sister. Tyson, is what I named him. Tyson gave me everything I so desperately needed at the time. That dog was so much more than a family pet, he provided me with reason and purpose, and he literally began to quickly fill the empty feeling i had deep within me. I know everybody with a pet will go on about how wonderful their pet is and yada yada. Well, it was so much more than that. For me. For me, Tyson was my strength. That pup brought so much happiness into my home and turned out to be the absolute most obedient, loving, understanding and docile dog I could ever dream of having brought home and raised. We were inseparable and he lived to be nearly 16 years old all the while having been with me thru the duration of the most turbulent time in my life. Its been years now since he left us and he has been with me in spirit ever since. Well, its been just 3 full days from the very moment i write this that I found myself inamorated once again with a new furry little four legged friend...actually, 8 legged - because this time as the Universe would see to it, I was destined to bring home both a brother and sister from a litter that was never even supposed to be from the very start! All i kept thinking about recently was Tyson and his sister and how much i missed him. As the memories (and some tears) began to flow, the nostalgia began to set in along with it, right on schedule. Anyway, its 1:30 in the morning and here I am over 20 years removed from Mr Degroots classroom writing this with a new chapter of pups to add to ‘lifes’ timeline.” No matter how much time passes or how many more experiences create new memories I still hold on to those times i so dearly came to cherish as my most important life lessons. Thank you, Me Degroot, for helping me in so many more ways than you could ever have imagined. ❤️ I will never forget...

Posted by Adrian Fantone on March 23, 2022