March 30th, 2008, was a blessed day for the Jacobson family. Earlier that day, Logan’s dad, Doug, hung towels on every door knob. He was anxious, at any second, the race would begin.

As the water burst, the clock embarked. Doug rushed to Community Medical Center, and then, his light sparked.

As a first time father Doug was flabbergasted, his baby’s head was “Squished ”. But when Logan was clean and Doug held him, he noticed something else, there was a heart shape on his palm.

Little reference

Thankfully, Logan turned out to be an “Easy baby”. According to Doug, Logan was a baby you could bring to stores; “He wasn’t a cryer”, plus he had a glowing smile.

Complementary to his smile, Logan was a happy boy. As Doug describes it, “Since that age he’s had a cheerful deposition”.

At this time another quality would disclose itself. This one came from a blood gusher.

As it turned out, baby logan was a climber, and one night he crawled out of his crib and fell on his head. 

After a day’s worth of worrying, his parents put him back in the crib; But as luck would have it, Logan again climbed and plummeted. The only difference this time was a stream of blood shooting from his forehead. 

After dealing with this incident, his parents realized that if Logan wanted something, he was gonna get it.

As Logan and Doug grew together, more things became apparent. Logan was a far cry from Doug; As an introvert, it was a shock for Doug seeing Logan become an extrovert. 

Doug describes this extraversion as “ an enthusiasm for life” and “an enthusiasm for people”. Doug believes these are the reasons “He (was) always looking for an opportunity to have fun.”

When Logan reached kindergarten, he just couldn’t wait.

Since the first day, Logan hasn’t looked back. He embraced the school, “He was very excited to be there, to see what’s around the corner” (Doug).

As it turned out Logan had a knack for art. Doug noticed that even at home he would practice his art. Doug nicknamed this passion Logan’s “nature for creation“.

He ended up being so inspired, that his whole garage was plastered with Logan’s creations.

Growing up, there was always a dog with Logan. The original dog he had was Sasha. When Logan was eight years old, Sasha passed away. Doug was heart broken; He had just lost his “First child”.

With a heart full of grief, Doug renounced replacing Sasha.

For a while at least, but then with enough straws, his back broke; Logan’s pleas overwhelmed his grief.

Then Doug decided it was time to move on.

Between all the options, Logan singled out one. Her name was Luna, a beautiful golden retriever.

Unfortunately, Logan’s luck ran short. In eighth grade bullying became oppressive.

 This damage compounded with internal family struggles.These internal struggles also led to online schooling the previous year

Doug saw it as kids unfairly judging Logan, “[Logan] just wanted to be part of the mix, and I’m sure that rubbed some kids the wrong way”.. Eighth grade was a reset for Logan, “ He was just trying to [re]figure stuff out”. 

Luckly, Logan eventually rose from the ashes. By the end of eighth grade, Doug saw Logan discover who he wanted to be.

A big assurance of this was, a dojo, Sakura Warrior arts. One of Logan’s friends, Evan, introduced him to the idea. And After years of persuading, Evan convinced him.

After a couple months both Doug and Evan noticed Logan’s increased confidence; it was astronomical. 

Evan expresses this by showing how Logan responds to being chastised. Before, he just wouldn’t stand up for himself, often Evan had to step up. After Sakura, Logan could just deflect the comments.

When Logan entered high school, Doug was sure Logan was going to join football, but in a weird turn of events “He did the exact opposite of what his dad did”(Doug). 

Doug’s siblings were the ones who inspired Logan. His brother was the one who ran Cross County (XC). His sister was the one who did Speech And Debate.

In Doug’s words “[Running] was healing for him”. “As his parent, I noticed a lot of growth, not just with running but with all things”.

Something else that touched Doug’s heart was the care Logan had harvested. He loved how he went from knowing nothing about XC, to “Pushing it as far as he could” (Doug).

“To watch this year unfold, as he was getting better, and better, it was a joy as a parent.”

The Lolo Creek Steakhouse was Logan’s second family. Doug admits, “that steakhouse finished off a lot of that parenting he needed”

Logan prided himself on his job. For the past two years, Logan made sure to brag about it. He constantly tried to convince his friends to work with him. From my experience, he would always bring up his decent pay, and how it wasn’t too bad.

Funny enough, he actually did it; three of us did join him.

Working as a dishwasher with Logan was neat; at work Logan was a lot like a stressful mother. Ten minutes never passed without him giving me advice. 

It even ended up angering our co-workers. One of them threatened to punch Logan, he said that he’s not even in the same room and it’s annoying him.

Logan’s motherly character shined when we were backed up; he would shut up, and WORK. His whole body would shake, even though only his hands were moving.

The owner of the steakhouse, Mike Gruno, was also astounded by Logan’s work ethic; he couldn’t believe that after running three miles, Logan would still come and “Bust his a**”(Mike).

Logan was so invested in the steak house that Doug described it as “Almost a problem at home”.

At times Doug saw Logan focusing more on work rather than school; especially after his girlfriend: Logan started ignoring his off days. Working just to spend more time with his girlfriend.

In Doug’s words “Steak house became all the time”.

Freshman year was a doozy for Logan. Doug was happy Logan joined XC, Speech and Debate, and track.

Seeing Logan so busy made Doug proud.

Reconnecting with friends was also a highlight for Logan. We were so important to Logan that even in his tight schedule, he would make friend time.

Even as a tween, Logan stayed a golden retriever .

A close friend of Logan, Landen, loved hearing Logan’s “Off beat” singing: it was his favorite memory.  Apparently, every time they would go for lunch, Logan sang.

What Evan misses most is Logan’s smile; he feels something’s missing every time he passes the halls.

I miss Logan’s chatter. Every time I work I expect to hear advice from Logan. I even miss Logan’s oddly worded jokes.

When I found out about the accident I was dumbfounded . Evan couldn’t believe the accident was real. Landen rotted with emotion. All of us hurt, and all of us desperately missed him.

And thankfully we weren’t alone, as shown above many others hurt, and many others wanted him back. 

As friends and as people, we were proud. Landen was proud of Logan’s money. Evan was proud of Logan’s kindness. I was proud of our friendship.

If we could travel back in time we would tell Logan a lot. Doug wants to convince him to abstain from driving; Evan agrees, but he also wants to tell him how no one will forget him. Landen wants to tell Logan about the hole he left in our hearts. I want to tell Logan everything will be alright, I want to tell him thank you.