Death of a Friend

I’ve been quite hesitant about writing on this topic, but I decided to write on it because part of me believes that writing, somehow, heals us. Almost 3 weeks ago, I was checking Facebook before going to bed. All was well until I saw a picture of a friend of mine whom I knew from tennis practice and had been my friend for 3 years. I read the photo caption. I read it two more times, each time hoping that I read it wrong. The photo caption said he died in a car accident and had a prayer for him. It was my first time to experience that kind of shock. I may have experienced the loss of close ones before, but I’ve never lost someone my age! The idea itself was terrifying. When I getting ready to go to his funeral and wearing black, I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. It felt like I was going to meet up with my friends as we normally do, but this time something would be missing. Someone would be missing, to be precise. I am twenty years old. I’d never spent the time to contemplate the idea of death. I didn’t have a solid philosophy regarding death to help me face the situation. The death of my friend was eye-opening for me on so many levels. At first, and for weeks, the idea of death kept roaming back and forth in my mind. I struggled to get out of bed in the morning. I stopped working altogether and delayed delivering all the required assignments at college. I didn’t want to speak to anyone. But when I started getting back on my feet, I realized I learned a lot. The death of my friend has reminded me that our time in this life is limited. So we should have a vision. We should think about the message we came to this earth to fulfill. When we are young, it’s really easy to fall prey to the idea of wasting our time doing useless stuff and saying that we’re young and we still have a long time ahead of us. So we postpone taking necessary decisions. This is wrong. My perspective regarding time changed. I’ve become really appreciative of every second of every day and am trying to make use of it. My father always tells me that “with every tribulation you face comes a disguised gift”. I know there is nothing in the world that would compensate for the death of a friend, but I’ll regard the lesson I’ve learned as the disguised gift!