“Good vibes and easy living.” --Brendan Tevlin (1995-2014)
Especially for college students today, this can seem an unattainable life attitude. Millennials, Generation X and everyone in between has been raised under the notion that life moves very fast. The college application process and job market have never been more competitive than they are today. In order to be successful, you are taught to sleep less, arrive early, work hard and do it all over again. You are taught to only allow yourself a breath when you win an abstract, ever-changing prize and that this is just how it is.
But you don’t need to think that way to be successful. In fact, if you think that way, your success is unlikely to be anything but one-dimensional.
At the age of 19, Brendan Tevlin was killed by three “lone-wolf” jihadists as he was driving home from a friend’s house at about 11:30 PM after playing video games. These men, wanted for other charges of murder and robbery across the country, were targeting a young, white man driving alone in West Orange, New Jersey. This was allegedly done to make a statement about American foreign policy in Iraq.
However, the campaign for Brendan’s legacy does not focus upon the circumstances of his death. Instead, it is centered around his personal motto of “Good vibes and easy living,” and the full life that can come about through living by this statement.
Brendan earned a list of accolades that would impress any student who has applied to colleges, and truly anyone else. During his time at the prestigious Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey, Brendan was President of Gaelic Society, and a member of the lacrosse team, National Honor Society, Ambassador’s Club, Knights of Setonia, Student Council, Math Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, Eucharistic Ministry, and a volunteer for the Winter Special Olympics. He was also a recipient of the Monsignor Tuohy Award for having achieved a GPA of over 4.0 for all four years of high school. These accomplishments collectively earned him a place in the 2013 University of Richmond freshman class, one of the most proximal members of the Atlantic 10 Athletic Conference.
However, Brendan is not remembered for this impressive resume. He is remembered for the people that he met and touched in these organizations. He is remembered for the way he carried himself, for his words of encouragement, for his smile, for his intangible qualities that made him a uniquely special human being. He is remembered for making people’s day, and being an extroverted “life of the party.” He is remembered for figuratively radiating, and literally radiating with sandy blonde hair, energetic blue eyes and clothes bright enough to match his disposition.
Yet like anyone, Brendan Tevlin had fears. Particularly, he expressed a fierce desire to make an impact in the world. Many people share this fear, but it often scares them to the point where they begin to see the world impersonally. They make safe choices hoping to maximize success. They have less interpersonal relationships, and few that are meaningful. Then, years later, they glance upon their trodden path and wonder if their attitude was completely wrong.
Brendan did not fall into this trap. You don’t achieve success by fearing life; you achieve it by loving life. At just nineteen years old, Brendan Tevlin understood this, lived it, and showed anyone and everyone he met that happiness and success are not mutually exclusive.
“Good vibes and easy living” does not imply blind optimism and a poor work ethic. It implies having the confidence and positivity to live your life in a way that is true to yourself. It implies treating others in a way that will surround you with many who love you, which makes getting up in the morning easier.
College students are not the only people that need to learn this. Truly, every human being needs to realize this at one point or another. This is what makes Brendan’s sudden passing especially tragic. Brendan’s death proves that there are people who know nothing about what life is or what it means, which gives them the atrociously misplaced audacity to think they can take it.
The world became less bright and more confusing the day Brendan physically left it. However, Brendan’s persistent legacy and memory has provided a beacon for his parents Alison and Michael, his siblings Michaela, Brian and Sean, his innumerable friends and anyone who changes his/her life to live more like Brendan. Even if blaring country music, surfing all day, or playing lacrosse with your friends does not make you feel quite as blissful and alive as it did for Brendan, you can still live like him. If you unreservedly live as who you are, learn to take through giving, and fall in love with life, your life will be filled with the good vibes, easy living, and intangible good that Brendan aimed and succeeded in giving to the world.
