If you don't know me, my name is Gene F, Finny's best friend. We are all here in remembrance of Phineas. Believe it or not, I really did not know the true Finny that well until near the end of his life. It is sad that I, his best friend, did not know everything about him. In the closing days of his life, he convinced me that there was, in fact, no such thing as an "enemy," for an enemy is only formed through the devilish quality of hate. Finny could not have hate in his heart, thus he did not have any enemies. This quality is a significantly positive quality, as it allows people to pursue a sincere friendship with one another. To this day, I continually think about what happened up in that tree that day. It was an accident that I jounced the limb, and caused Finny to lose his balance and fall.
I remember Finny as my roommate, a remarkable athlete with a disregard for the rules and an innate ability to win people over. He got me in quite a bit of trouble by his impulsive nature and instinctive disobedience, but he is very good at heart. Finny was very unique, extremely loyal, and was there if you ever needed him. He was also very spontaneous; there was not one thing that he did that did not surprise me. While I personally am a conservative, Finny seemed to transcend me beyond my limits, and I don't regret anything about that, I"m very thankful. Another special quality of Finny was that he could get out of almost any situation, almost charm his way out of one. I remember one time when Finny and I were late to dinner; Mr. Prud"homme came and talked to us about it. Finny, using his charm, tells him that we were swimming and watching the sunset and those activities were very important because he and I were coming of the draft age. Using that excuse, Finny got him and I out of trouble. At a certain point at Devon I believed that Finny was trying to sabotage my academic career, but then my life changed completely when Finny told me that he did not know that I had to study to do well academically, he thought that it came natural like him and his athletic ability.
