Grief is an emotion that unfortunately, we all come to experience some time or another. However, that terrible feeling can open the door to acceptance and appreciation. Mourning and reflecting upon a tragic event can cause one to look at an issue through a different perspective, and maybe even help them accept it. On the September 29, 2014, one of my close friends committed suicide. This horrible event taught me that when a society is faced with a tragedy they all unite as one, and it teaches the bearers of the burden to be appreciative.
Initially, a community comes together when a tragedy has occurred because it is human instinct to stick together through rough debacles. When I first saw Daniel, I could not believe that he was the person laying down in the room which I was directed too. Every single part of his body that was visible looked like it had been filled up with air as if they were balloons. The only thing keeping him alive was the machine that he was connected too, it didn’t even look real when the machine took breaths for him.
It seemed as if he was just a blown up vegetable rocking up and down. His toes and fingers possessed an awful, greenish, and deathlike tone that makes me sick to my stomach by just thinking about it. The few people who were allowed to see him, instantly had a much deeper understanding between each other. Putting that scene into words is almost tear breaking due to the horrendous emotions that it brings me; that being said, I began to realize that I was going to come out of this hell possessing a stronger bond with every person which whom I shared that experience with.
I feel like no one except the people that were there, can understand or try to comprehend the way that environment made me feel. This event also caused people that couldn’t even be in the same room with each other, to come together because of the issue at stake. Clearly, tragedies allow a community to unite. Furthermore, a positive outcome of a society being struck by a horrific event, is that the people who had to endure it become more appreciative as a whole.
Before this took place, I always fought with my parents and did not really take into consideration all of the things that they have done for me, and not only my parents but everyone else that cares about me. Daniel’s death and the entire experience made me be more appreciative of the simpler things in my life, and to value more the effort that those who love me put forth into making me happy. I have a friend named Cristobal who always crashed heads with his dad and even physically attacked him and got placed under arrest due to that. Cristobal was never the same after the calamity that was Daniel’s death.
This event taught him that no matter what, at the end of the day his father will always be his father. He learned to accept this and his relationship with his father is now better than it ever was before. I have witnessed countless of my friends and loved ones which whom I shared that experience with, be more loving and caring towards others. These people have also learned the blessing that is to be tolerant and understanding. Behind someone’s smile, there may be the biggest frown and that is why they learned to not be so judgmental towards others.
Daniel was one of the happiest and most good looking kids I have ever met, but that just goes to show that every single one of us goes through different controversies that affects each and every one of us in a personal matter. The fact that Daniel seemed like a kid who possessed attributes anyone our age would love to have such as exceptional looks, wealth, and confidence demonstrates that you should never really judge someone based on surface information, because people are even deeper then oceans.
As you can see, a horrible and tragic event can teach people to be more grateful. When a society is bestowed upon with a tragedy, it causes all of the societies’ members to become more appreciative and to come together. Seeing enemies and rivals hugging each other for support, witnessing people take into consideration the little things in life, and watching parents apologize for the unintended pressure that they enforce upon their children has taught me that when a group of people is affected by the same issue they come together to cope with the problem at hand.
