It’s a part of life and it happens daily, but yet everyone’s shocked when it actually occurs. It’s as if aliens invaded our planet because no one is ever properly prepared. There’s no heads up, or a warning. It just happens. Suddenly. Abruptly. Unexpectedly. God always needs new angels to walk the grounds of His Heaven, and whether we like it or not, it happens.
Accepting death is never easy for anyone. No matter the age, it will always be difficult for an individual to cope with. Whether it’s a teenager, a young child, or an adult, anybody can suffer from the death of a loved one at any moment. And as problematic as it would be for a child in elementary school, it’d be just as hard for a teenage girl who never had to think about losing a loved one until her junior year in high school. I guess I can say this because it’s exactly what happened to me.
One Tuesday morning in January, I was going about my regular daily routine, sitting on the hallway floor waiting for the bell to ring when my cell phone started to vibrate.
“Hello?” I answered in confusion.
“Hey, Jenn. Do you know who Mike is? He was in a car accident last night and he died.”
The name ran through my mind quickly, hoping and praying that I didn’t know him. At that moment I was unable to put the name to a face, so after what felt like eternity, I responded “No, I don’t,” and I heard the click on the other end of the phone.
Most people weren’t in their first period classes. They were all making signs in honor of Mike. But by the time second period came around, I realized who he was. He was a sophomore and he lived right around the block from me. He was on my bus, and I saw him less then twenty-four hours earlier. It all seemed so fake, so dreamlike. Just the day before he was running and jumping on the bus messing around with his friends, and then he was gone.
But why him? Every time I’d walk past him in the hall he was doing something nice for someone else. He was unlike any other teenager. If someone dropped a book, he wouldn’t simply step over it and keep going about his day, he’d stop and pick it up for them. So why him?
But realizing who it was wasn’t even the worst part. The hardest part of it all was learning to accept it. Just grasping the fact that any human being could be gone in an instant left me speechless. But I had to understand, I had to realize it and accept it because I knew this wasn’t the last time it would happen.
Experiencing a death of a person I’d known was an eye-opening moment that I could never forget. I believe I’ve become a better person from that day forward. I learned not to take life for granted. Everything and anyone can be taken away in the blink of an eye. And as many times as I hear about a death that doesn’t affect me, some day it will. Someday I’ll know the person who was hit by the car, or overdosed on drugs, and when that day does come, I’ll want my support system. So until then I’ll comfort those around me who are struggling, so when I need that comfort, they’ll be there.
The world is never going to be perfect, and death will never not occur, so for my well-being, I decided to hold on to all of the honorable memories and forget about the fact that Mike didn’t live to see as many days as he should have.
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