My spirit is broken.

Yesterday, I lost one of my heroes, Kobe Bean Bryant.

I was in my mum’s room putting the final touches on my first interview of 2020 when my phone pinged. It was a message on Instagram from my secondary school classmate, Odunayo Balogun. Her message read, “Shade, is it true what happened to Kobe?” I was confused. What could have happened to Kobe? Maybe he’d said something in the media, I thought. For a split second I almost ignored it, but I decided to check Twitter. Death was truly the last thing on my mind.

I typed Kobe into the search bar and the first thing that I saw was “Kobe Bryant killed in a helicopter crash.” I dropped my phone, screamed, and began to cry. My mum asked what happened and I told her. A couple of minutes later, my father called to tell me and I just sobbed like a baby and have not stopped. People who know me well know that Kobe Bryant was one of my heroes. Whenever I feel low or discouraged, I always ask myself, “what would Kobe do?” Besides my parents, he taught me so much about life, intensity, having a killer instinct, persistence, curiosity, focus, and excellence. Kobe taught millions of people like myself, about the Mamba Mentality and the importance of living your life to the best of your ability.

I barely slept last night. Today has just been a daze. Not sure what tomorrow or the rest of the year (or years) will feel like.

I am struggling to place Kobe Bryant in past tense. It simply does not make any sense to me that the amazing Black Mamba is gone. Worse is that his daughter Gianna and 7 other amazing individuals also died in the crash. I hate death! I hate how the world keeps turning after good people go, famous or not. Life just goes on. It sucks even more that those left behind must find a way to keep on going with only memories to hold.

I am so sad and heartbroken. There are no words.

May the souls of all the departed rest in peace (Kobe Bryant, Gianna Byrant, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester, and Ara Zobayan). May God wrap his precious arms around their loved ones and comfort them.

Thank you for an inspiring life Kobe Bean Bryant! Thank you for pushing me to be and live the best version of myself everyday. I’ll do my best to make you proud.

Black Mamba forever!