Jennifer Michalski
Living Obituary
We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of Jessica Cates. Although she lived a very short life, it wasn’t short in the aspect of how many lives she’s touched and goals she’s achieved.
She was majoring in Selling and Sales Management at the prestigious Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Keeping in mind that her ultimate goal after college was to run her own business, she looked into the curriculum that Purdue offered and realized that their Selling and Sales Management program best suited what she was looking for. She loved working with people face to face rather than doing accounting and behind the scenes work that you might have to do in other majors. She was aspiring to get a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and a minor in Communication.
At Purdue, she was active as an Advertising Representative for The Exponent. This job at Purdue was a great way for her to broaden her knowledge of the sales field and to get a better idea of what it would be like to work at a publication. Ever since Jessica was younger, she was interested in newspapers. So, she thought this would be a great opportunity to get her feet wet in the industry.
If I had to put my finger on one of Jessica’s most memorable accomplishments, it would be her trip to the Smoky Mountains during her spring break her senior year of high school. She took the trip with her Dad, who she often referred to as her hero. They both thoroughly enjoy hiking and this trip involved a ten mile round trip hike, almost all of which is straight up the mountain. When she spoke of the trip, she would talk about the challenge, the quiet, and the scenery, all of these of which made the trip very memorable.
Among the many ever changing hobbies that Jessica had the weirdest hobby that she had would be when she would listen to Pandora (the make your own music station) and googling the lyrics to the different songs that would come up. She would always joke about having more song lyrics memorized than she does things for school. Jessica’s friend, Nick, said that they were working on compiling a playlist of bands and songs that they loved and they were planning on calling it “Nick and Jessica’s Infinite Playlist,” after the movie Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist. Nick is here today and would like to share with us the playlist that they had been working on. Always having her ipod on, it was constantly a challenge to get her to remove her headphones and talk with us girls.
Being the very loyal friend that she was, Jessica had kept the same three close friends since her freshman year of college. The three of them met because they shared a floor in the dorms. It seems pretty obvious that the main reason that they are all friends is because they are all horribly sarcastic and have similar personalities and the same sense of humor.
Although Jessica was very young when her life ended, she has helped many people to succeed. She got satisfaction from motivating everyone around her to succeed. If there was any way that she could make someone else’s life easier and she could help, she would. I remember a time when one of her close friends in high school was struggling to get fit, Jessica was right by her side the entire time. She would cheer her on, help her exercise, and even got her mile down from 14 minutes to 11 minutes. If there was one person that you could count on to try to make your life easier and to push you to succeed in what ever your goal was, it was Jessica.
One thing that I wish that everyone in the room would’ve had the chance to see, was how ridiculously loud, obnoxious, and awkward Jessica could be. I am not saying this in any other way than how amazingly fun she could be. I know from experience that most people think that Jessica is very reserved and quiet; all of this changes once she lets her guard down. She was one of the wackiest girls I have ever known and probably will ever know.
It is extremely sad for me to know all of Jessica’s ultimate goals in life and knowing that her life was cut short and that she will never be able to experience the great joys she had made goals for herself. Becoming a successful entrepreneur was something that was high on Jessica’s list of things to accomplish. I know for a fact, that if Jessica was still alive five years from now that her dreams would be coming true as we speak. Listening to Jessica tell stories of her parents amazing relationship and how their love grew every day, was a very heart warming thing for me. It kills me to see them sitting there; no parent should have to attend their child’s funeral. I can tell you that she aspired to be just like her parents and that she was very proud to be blessed with two such astounding human beings in her life. She would speak about how she was aspiring to have a family that was very similar to the family she grew up in.
Jessica Cates, a sister, a daughter, a best friend, an employee, and a student. However you knew Jessica, I hope that when you are in a difficult situation you think to yourself, “What would Jessica do?” As much as Jessica lent a helping hand to others, everyone should try to do the same to keep the unselfishness going. Before I finish my speech, I want to share some of Jessica’s favorite things. When you think of these things, remember Jessica Cates: music, her dogs (Purdue and Sabian), the outdoors, watching her brother become a better musician, running, hiking, books, newspapers, deep conversations about religion, life, love, etc, traveling, making people laugh, telling stories, watching the Colts win at football, making jewelry, and being sarcastic. Thank you Jessica for being a loving and giving person, you will be missed.