Nolan Thompson was a kind young man whom fellow students and staff enjoyed spending time with. He described himself as “quiet, funny, and gamer” in a first day of school questionnaire. He loved Math, sour Skittles, and his favorite worship song was 10,000 Reasons. He had a strong foundation of Faith and wasn’t afraid to share it as you can read his own words in bold below.
Our high school Bible department shared an excerpt from Nolan’s journal that he wrote earlier this school year, “When God entered my life, my whole life changed. God saved me and set me free, He allows me to live a love filled life. God made me a better person. He allowed me to be cleansed of my sins. God means everything to me. He is the word and the light. God should be in everyone’s life, and he should mean a lot to you like he does to me.”
In Health class, the class was recently studying mental health and emotions, part of an assignment was to describe the last time they felt loved. Nolan’s answer: “I feel loved all the time because I know that my parents love me. I know that my friends and family love me. I think that everyone should always have the feeling of love. Everyone needs those people in their life who care for them.”
The teacher explained: “He was wise beyond his years, and so disciplined in his faith. There is no question that Nolan loved the Lord, because he was a walking, talking testimony.” The last part of that health assignment posed the question, “Sadness and anger are usually associated with negativity. Why do you think God allows us to feel these emotions?” His answer: “God allows us to feel these emotions so that we can be brought closer to him. If we only had happiness and joy we would never think of God in the way we do now.”
Dr. Anthony shared, “We are clinging to these words as we are grieving, and amazed in the way that celebrating Nolan’s life has brought our community closer together and closer to God.”
Nolan’s biology teacher shared, “He was in my 7th period and his positive demeanor and sense of humor was always on full display as that class could go either way. His respect for me and his classmates always shone through. He left his personality on everything we did in biology, especially during dissections. His huge smile radiated through the room every day.”
Nolan’s Spanish teacher shared, “I’ve been blessed to have Nolan in my Spanish classes for two years now. He’s always been somewhat quiet and reserved but I’ll never forget anytime I called on Nolan to read or to answer a question he always gave me the biggest smile and nodded his head, while not having a clue of what to say in Spanish, he always tried. Towards the middle of the semester his 9th grade year, I could see that he became more comfortable in class and seemed to always have a smile no matter what. His calm demeanor and playfulness with his classmates made our class a fun learning environment.”
Another Trinity teacher shared, “Nolan and his quiet Spirit were a bright spot of my 4th period this year. In the Fall we rearranged seats and Nolan landed in the seat right by my desk. He liked this spot. He never says much but he would use this corner spot to his advantage to ask questions. Given the opportunity to change seats in the second semester - he didn’t. He chose to stay right where he was. He took ownership of his own learning by knowing that this was the spot he needed to be in. This desk will now be the only empty seat in that class.”
Another Trinity teacher shared, “Nolan was in my Literature and Composition class during 9th grade. During our unit over Homer’s The Odyssey, I asked all my students to write about what makes a person a hero.
“A hero is made by someone who works hard and puts in the effort to go the extra mile and help people and make someone’s day better. A hero is someone who even though they may not be known or gain anything from it will still do good for the community. To be a hero you do not need to have everybody’s respect. All you need to be a hero is to be nice and show kindness even if you gain nothing from it. Be nice and treat others how you want to be treated. You do not need to be perfect or have a high status in the world to be a hero. If you yourself want to be a hero you need to start doing good deeds and helping others even when there is no reward, you need to be kind and you need to be generous. If you help others then most likely you will inspire others who want to do the same, to start acting these good actions out which can then inspire others. If we all start acting nice, we could have a better world where all people are nice and always help each other out. There wouldn’t be many fights because all there would be is people being nice to each other. That is what it means to be a great hero, to inspire people, to not look down on others, and to be kind, generous, and grateful for everything and to everyone in the world.”
“Nolan lived his definition of a hero out in his life. Though he was calm and quiet, Nolan was welcoming to everyone. He was always smiling and always ready to help. He was polite, respectful, and kind. He was a blessing to my class.”
Nolan Thompson was loved. Nolan Thompson will be remembered. And Nolan’s family will be held in our prayers especially during this difficult time ahead. Trinity means family.
