November 30, 2013: The day Paul Walker Died

I remember exactly what I was doing on this night 10 years ago. It was Saturday night and I was watching a marathon of the Fast and the Furious movies, specifically the first two entries in the series. Bravo channel had been showing the two films all of Friday and Saturday night. At some point during my binge of the two movies I was also watching something on E! channel. I don’t remember what exactly I was watching, but I do remember turning back to whatever it was when The Fast and the Furious (2001) went on commercial break. As I turned back to E! Channel during the commercial I saw a big red flashing E! News headline underneath the movie I was watching that said: “BREAKING NEWS: PAUL WALKER, DEAD!”

As soon as I saw this headline I just automatically thought it was fake, considering that just a couple days ago there had ironically been a death hoax reporting that Paul Walker had died and I was just thinking that maybe this hoax was back in circulation, but then again I also thought it was highly unlikely that E! News would post about a hoax for any other reason than acknowledging that it was a hoax.

So I started checking my social media very carefully to see if there was any validity to this story. At first I just typed in Paul Walker’s name on my google page and sure enough all the celebrity news reports, starting with TMZ had confirmed that the news was real, Paul Walker had died in a car accident just a mere couple hours Pacific standard time. This was not only shocking, but also heartwrenchingly ironic considering that I was right there watching the Fast and the Furious films when the news came in that he had died and even more ironically tragic, he died in a car crash.

When the reality of what happened started to settle in I starting feeling a mix of shock and heartbreak. I have been a huge Paul Walker fan my whole life so when this news broke of his death I was obviously floored. I ended up calling my grandmother right after I heard the news and told her about it because one of her younger sisters loved watching the Fast and the Furious films with me. After giving my grandma a brief overview of the Fast films and Paul Walker she would eventually take interest in him and his history overtime.

By the next morning the news of Paul Walker’s death was all over social media and television news. Many of my friends who were big Paul Walker and Fast series fans were in complete disbelief of the news at his passing. Furthermore the surveillance footage of the immediate aftermath of his crash had also hit the web and it was utterly shocking and devastating. I just couldn’t believe it was real. What really started tugging at the heartstrings for me was seeing the world of Hollywood pay tribute to him. So many actors and actresses who Paul Walker worked in all the films we loved from him had heartfelt words of condolences to offer him.

Reading the tributes was really tearjerking because you not only saw what a diverse group of people he impacted, but you also heard a lot from the co stars who worked with him in all the memories of art he gave us, especially that of the Fast series. The moment that really broke me down was watching his co stars from the Fast series including: Tyrese Gibson, Vin Diesel and Rick Yune visit his crash site wearing their emotional distraught on their faces.

In the days and weeks following his death many people recounted the positive impact that Paul Walker left on the world with his humanitarian heart and good spirit. He was certainly a loving person with a great heart and his death was tragic without question. It left a huge impact that created a flourishing tribute of a finish to his career with the posthumously released Furious 7. It's been a long decade since Paul has been gone, but the world has not forgotten about what an extraordinary person he was. Though he has long passed on, his legacy lives on through his family, friends and art that he left behind.

R.I.P. Paul William Walker (September 12th, 1973 - November 30th, 2013).