About a week ago, I learned that a young man named Mowgli Miles had died.  He died suddenly in December, and the news was posted on the Lil Peep Reddit page. My heart sank.  I was struck by the kindness and tenderness Mowgli had shown over the years since my own son, Gus, died in 2017. We have lost someone dear.  I feel the weight of his death deeply. We have lost him, but we will hold him in our hearts.  We will celebrate his achievements.  I will not forget Mowgli Miles.  He is someone to remember and to be proud of.

So, as a little kid, Gus got to experience the pleasure of writing freely. I have all of his written work from the first grade, as well as his early writing from Pre-K and Kindergarten.  It is interesting to analyze Gus’s early written work with all his other writing to think about as well.  I see patterns in his writing.  From the moment he began writing, as a child, until the day he died, Gus mixed reality with make-believe to express his feelings whether they were playful or sad.

What stands out the most to me when I read Gus’s early stories is how so many of them are evocative in the same way that his lyrics are. 

Gus loved shoes.  He began to show an interest in “cool shoes” around fourth or fifth grade.  One of the first observable instances of Gus’s keen fascination with shoes was the moment he commented on his grandmother’s black Converse All-Stars.  They were high-tops.  He told her he liked them.  She gave them to him.  And so it began.