We Need to Remember That Life is Short - Essay
You know that moment in life where you realize it’s time to grow up and put your big person pants on? Yeah, I had this realization early in my life. It was my summer right before my freshman year of high school, my Grandmother got diagnosed with cancer for the second time! The first time it was breast cancer, the doctors were sure that it was gone but unfortunately it wasn’t. The second time around it was too late, the cancer had spread all over her body. I chose to write life is short essay to show you my experience.
Even though my grandmother was sick everybody had lives to maintain, with work and their own families, so it became my responsibility to care after her. There I was, a little thirteen-year-old girl whose main stress was if I was going to miss my favorite show on Disney Channel taking on this huge responsibility of taking care of another person. At first it was all fine, she was still her happy, goofy self. She was still seeing the positive side of things and enjoying her life by laughing every moment she got and going to church three days out of the week. In church, that’s when she was her happiest, I used to go with her to make her happy and I loved her energy while there.
Within time this became an arduous task for me, she started getting worse and depressed. She got to the point where she didn’t want to eat, she laid in bed all day. It hurt me to see my grandmother evolve into this person that she’s not. I tried my best to care for her. I had to argue with her every day to eat, shower, take medicine, it was like she was thirteen-year-old, and I was the elder one. She started making it hard for me, yelling at me, ignoring me, blaming me when something wasn’t right. I had to understand that that wasn’t her, it was her disease taking over and eating her alive. I’m not going to lie, it was extremely difficult to take on this role, I cried almost every day. Not because of how she was expressing her frustration but because I knew this wasn’t her and I could only do so much.
I felt so helpless, she was losing a tremendous amount of weight, she had this look in her eyes that just had hopelessness lashing out. Her last couple of days were spent in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Newark, NJ. That last day of her life is when I realized life is short. It was a very small portion of my family and I in the room with her. It happened so quickly, she didn’t say anything, she just took a breath. The look in her eyes is a look I will never forget or get out of my mind.
I was no longer oblivious to the real things and situations life throws at us. I saw how quick your life could just become a living hell and how I should make the best of the life I’m living now. This wasn’t the end of my responsibilities. This along with other experiences I’ve been through had made me who I am today. Going through this experience has made me want to strive farther in life and accomplish more than anybody in my family. I do it all for her, I know how proud she would be of me if she was still alive. Also, I'm always remember that live is short…
