Ways to Live Forever

By: Sally Nicholls

               What would you do if you knew you were going to die in the next year? Tell everyone how you feel about them? Make a list of what you wanted to do before your time is up? Write a book about your life so far? Sam Oliver McQueen did.

                Sam was diagnosed with leukemia that seems to come back every time he tries to treat it. The first time he was in the hospital he met a new friend, Felix who is also sick with cancer. Him and Felix become best of friends and decide to make a list of what they want to before they die. Sam wants to write a book, be a fomous scientist, break a silly world record, watch horror films, do teenage things, and ride in an airship. Being the good friend Felix is, he tries to help Sam accomplish his wishes, but things go turn out bad instead of good.

               Felix has become really sick again and is now in the hospital. Sam goes to visit him, while on his visit, holding his hand, Felix's heart stops beating. Leaving Sam so devastated, he hasn't been acting normal lately, but there is a reason. His medication hasn't been working properly so, it's Sam's decision to take him completely off of medication or to try more and more pills. He chooses to get completely off of the meds, making his life span shorter. 

                One night Sam drifts off to sleep, never waking again. Ending his book with a comment from his mom, "Sam died quietly in his sleep. There was no pain." His book proves the point of how he lived when he knew his time was going to be up.