All it takes is five seconds, and it can change your whole perspective about the word “Death”. Last May a good friend of mine died, after falling off a bicycle. I couldn’t comprehend the fact that he was dead for a few hours after my father told me. It seemed to me that just a moment ago I was playing basketball with him. He was only twelve but I knew him since he was very young. Actually he was almost a best friend to me. After his accident he was rushed to the hospital with a coma. Then after two weeks all his organs eventually failed. I was so nave.
During the time he was in the hospital, I always told myself that he was going to be all right and he was going to be out of there in no time. But I was wrong, and I learned that life wasn’t like that and it didn’t always happen that way. Having a near death experience myself, my thoughts about death also took a different turn. I never thought death would even come near me. Last year in May, my sister, dad, and I were driving down to California. And it was about seven o’clock in the morning and my sister was driving. Then she fell asleep and starting riving off the road.
She swerved back on the road really hard, which made the car flip over four times. Then we were rushed to the hospital and stayed there for about an hour. My sister and I were all right but my dad was in critical condition. My dad ended up only loosing his pinky finger. Just being in that situation made my outlook on life and death different. I couldn’t bear the fact that my dad would be gone forever. Being a Christian I was brought up to believe that people who believe in Jesus Christ would have a greater destiny in heaven.
But in these two situations with death, I wasn’t able to think about them being gone and in heaven. I only ! thought about them being gone period. Watching all the hurts and tears that people shed during my friends death made me think about how death can be such an impact on peoples lives. People do not take death lightly. Their emotions and thoughts take a big twist and a lot of questions go through their thoughts like “What if that were my son”? Or “What if that was me”? Also regrets start creeping into peoples minds especially the parents.
I started to regret not spending enough time with him and not being a good enough friend with him before he was gone. And I’m sure the parents also had familiar regrets. And now that that person is gone, there will always be a piece of my thoughts missing. There are thoughts that I had that were so repetitive and thoughts that I had so often that involved my friend. And now I have to change those thoughts and adjust them into thoughts that I would have of him not being around and gone forever.
Having a close friend die lso will force anybody to make changes in their lif! , in their thoughts and in there every day act of living. This experience with death also made me have a sentimental attitude towards people that I don’t even know, that have died. For instance, when I watch the news and someone has died, I usually just feel sorry for a few minutes and forget about it. But now I can relate to the families and friends of the person that had past away. Just a few days ago a very important man in my church died from cancer. He was also my principle in grade school.
They announced his death Sunday morning during the church service. I again got to watch many people weep and mourn over this great man of stature. I got to see some friends of mine cry that I had never seen cry before. Which is another example how death can totally flip anyone’s emotions. In conclusion, death is never easy to deal with. And death is something that you cannot help. If anyone close to you is ever on their death bed, you should not expect everything to be good and everything to turn out just like it does in the movies.
Because chances are everything wont turn out and you’ll end up having a lot of hurt and a lot of resentment from being naive like I was. My father always told my that people who learn from there mistakes are smart, but people who learn from other peoples mistakes are geniuses. So you can be smart and experience death with a nave way of thinking, or be a genius and learn from what I’ve told you in this essay. Death is an irreversible event and is better to adjust your life accordingly and live on, instead of being miserable for the rest of you life.