Author | Lydia Rice |
Caption: Selfie-bombing people’s phones not included, Michael and I were pretty picture-allergic, so I can still remember how surprised and touched I was when I saw his birthday wishes.
When I call Michael Powell the best of us, I do not say that lightly. Journalism Club has been blessed with a number of creative, inspiring, and resilient members throughout the years, but I can honestly say that Michael was one of the hardest working and most reliable.
I was a founding member of the Journalism Club and in its second year (2018.19), I became co-leader with April Breedlove. At the time, Michael was our only 8th grader and by far the youngest in the club. If I hadn’t told you that (and if Michael wasn’t so short and adorable), you would not have been able to tell he was the youngest at all. Michael was far more mature than most of our club members. I don’t mean that as a slight on anyone and all the members from that year would agree that we were a chaotic and eccentric bunch of individuals. It is simply the truth that out of pretty much all of us, we could count on Michael to be the level-headed voice of reason.
Michael was honestly one of the members I was closest to that year because we were both on the Feature Articles team. This was a team of all seniors (who had serious senioritis) and yet again was a testament to his maturity. As a leader, I knew I could always rely on Michael to have his article done on time, and some days, he was my only link to sanity. I never had to bother him on GroupMe about article deadlines. In fact, it was him asking me if there was anything more he could do to help. He was also pretty much the ONLY person who would read the meeting minutes and other club documents, and I really appreciated it. As someone who put a ton of time into writing all these additional documents, getting those “Michael Powell has requested access” e-mails (because I would sometimes forget to open up the access to everyone) would really mean a lot. He was one of my biggest supporters and he was great with social media. He was always hyping up the Guild Gazette articles on his personal Instagram and would post hilarious and often encouraging Instagram stories about me being his fearless leader (or ruthless dictator depending on the week). As anyone who knew Michael is aware, he was an endless dispenser of compliments.
In many ways, Michael and I were pretty similar and I think that’s why we got along so well. After all, we were both older siblings with younger siblings who are in many ways complete opposites to us. As kids, I pushed my sister Vivian off the bed when I thought she was going to try on permanent lipstick (which my little brain thought actually meant for real permanent), just like Michael tackled Thomas out of the way of the store machine. We were both super serious babies too, which I suspect is also an older sibling thing. Some of my best memories of Michael and me in Journalism Club are brainstorming article titles together. Michael was an impressive writer, but he hated coming up with article titles. I would normally pitch him a few and that would be the title. In fact, you can clearly see this relationship in Michael’s article titles that first year. When I graduated, I genuinely pushed hard for Michael to apply as a leader, even though he would only be a freshman. He didn’t apply that year, but I would have fought for him tooth and nail.
When I say Michael was mature, that does NOT mean he was boring. He definitely was not. Our Journalism Club was genuinely insane and wild and energetic. We were constantly having debates and making quips and Michael would be right there in the trenches, making everyone laugh with his deadpan snark. During one particularly crazy meeting, Michael was literally dragged around the room by Justin Burnett laughing the whole time. One of Michael’s incredible traits is that he was super charismatic in a subtle way. He was great at matching energy levels and getting people to open up to him. Michael was deeply multifaceted and a bit of a social chameleon. He was snarky but sincere, hard-working but chill, and a surprisingly goofy kid if you could see beyond his complete and total deadpan delivery.
One of the best events of the year was when the Journalism Club went to UGA for the GSPA conference. On the way back, we were all exhausted and suddenly we see this giant plume of smoke rising from the distance in the woods off the highway. Michael immediately begins texting his Dad because he was a fireman and asking him if he knew anything about the fire. Michael was definitely a family man. He was very proud of his parents and he talked about his Mom’s job at the Gas South Arena in the very first week.
After I graduated, I was lucky to keep up with Michael casually. He would ask if I was dying yet from college homework and I would ask how his acting gigs were going. I would also famously always ask him how LCA was when it was actually BCA, but luckily he always said it didn’t matter. Vivian was one of his best friends, so I always heard updates and would see him around the house at Journalism Club events when I was home from college.
I now realize that I was so lucky to have spent a few hours with Michael a few days before his accident. It was Sunday, May 22nd. Vivian was having her graduation party and Michael came at the perfect time. Most of the relatives had left, and it was pretty much just Vivian’s best friends. We all started playing Monopoly, while Michael abstained and regaled us with his favorite Chickfila stories, what was happening in his life, and how he finally got to go back to SGA. We heard how he was basically living in a tin can and they’d just found out there were dead rats in the well water.
As for Chickfila, Michael told us how he stopped one guy from getting out of his car. Apparently, this guy was really rude and was harassing the lady in front of him for not moving forward. Michael calmly told the guy, “Hello, sir. that lady is actually just following the sign in front of her. This is the procedure so that we keep the lines orderly.” The guy did not listen and kept threatening to get out of his car, and Michael was having none of it. “Sir, get back in your car. Sir, you will not open that door.” Eventually, Michael had enough. “Sir, please back up and drive away. We don’t want your business today.” Sure enough, the guy backed up and drove away.
Another one of Vivian’s best friends was Joyce. She was there playing Monopoly with us and Michael kept shooting her the strangest looks. Eventually, they realized that they had at least 5 people in common because a lot of his Chick-fil-A employees went to the same school as Joyce. After that, it was another hour of swapping stories about everyone’s shenanigans.
One of the funniest moments was Michael and Vivian revealing that they were both still logged into the Guild Gazette Instagram and would browse it to see what random people from school were up to and who just got married. Michael was telling a story about how he knew this kid from school that got suspended for fighting a 4th grader. By this time, the yearbook is already out and splayed on the table as we have been referencing different people. I point to a picture and was like “Wow, I forgot he looked so dorky” and Michael laughs and goes “That’s me.” Sure enough, it’s a picture of tiny Michael from elementary school with thick black glasses. Whoops. Another thing I was grateful for was Michael’s generous sense of humor.
I will never be able to put into words how grateful I am to have gotten to spend that time with Michael. I hadn’t seen him in person for years at that point, and I’d forgotten how much I loved hanging out with him. I feel like in those few hours I laughed harder than I’d laughed all year hearing stories about people I’d never meet. That’s just who Michael was, and I miss him deeply every day.
One of the hardest things for me about writing this article was not coming up with the words to celebrate such a complex and truly unique person but writing about Michael in the past tense. It is a jarring transition to realize just before his passing when I said “See you later” and “You’ll be old too, Michael”, I was banking on a certainty of life that does not exist. Life is precious and it is fragile, but I take comfort in knowing that Michael lives on forever. Of course, he lives on in the spiritual sense, but even beyond that incredible aspect, he lives on through his actions, in our memories, in his impact on the world, and in his writing. Every time Michael took pen to page (or finger to keyboard), he captured a bit of his personality, opinion, and worldview and wrote it down for us to read. In the spirit of celebrating that, please take a look at the articles Michael has written for the Guild Gazette in the list below.
Michael, thank you for being the best of us.
A Chronological Guide to Michael Powell’s Articles and Contributions
2018.19
2018.19 Articles That Featured Michael
It's Time - Farewell, Journalism Leaders (Video celebrating Michael and all the JC members that year)
Which Journalism Club Member Are You? (This is a personality quiz I wrote based on answers the JC members gave me. You can see how much of a Michael you are and read his bio.)
2019.20
2019.20 Articles That Featured Michael
2020.21
Videos on the Guild Gazette Youtube Channel Featuring Michael
Guild Gazette Guides: Cupcake Edition (This is pretty much the ultimate Michael video. His top tier acting skills are on full display.)
Who’s Most Likely Too? (This is the same video linked in the 2019.20 article Who is Most Likely To?)
Michael’s Instagram Takeover
Michael’s Instagram takeover can be viewed on the story archives on our Instagram page @theguildgazette. He appears randomly in many of the other story archives as well.
Comments