Life is not guaranteed. You are not invincible. Many young people do not believe these statements. I didn’t believe it either until three years ago. Until my senior year in high school, I felt I was entitled to everything.
On Nov. 26, 2009, my older brother died. He was in a car crash on Nov. 21, after falling asleep while driving. It was something so simple that I am sure none of us think could kill us, and my brother didn’t think so either. He was in a coma and suffering from head swelling for the next week. My family was told that Zach was not going to come back.
My world changed. My priorities changed, my personality changed, my opinions changed, EVERYTHING CHANGED. I became much more calm, and sadly much more paranoid. To this day I am still scared of driving in any unsafe situation and get nervous when I can’t get a hold of someone for an extended period of time. However, the biggest change was learning to live without my brother, without the person I could complain about my parents to, without my protection from all boys, without my birth given best friend. That change is at sometimes unbearable. Of course, flowers, cards and sympathy flowed in from family and friends, which my family appreciated, but that was not going to bring Zach back.
Now three years later, I am a stronger person, a person who learned the hard way that life can be short. I know some of you will read this and it will not affect your life, but if it affects one person and causes someone to re-evaluate his or her life, then my job is done.
My brother died from something as simple as being tired. He didn’t fight a sickness. He did not want to leave this world. He did not put himself in an obviously dangerous situation. He simply fell asleep while driving, no alcohol, no drugs, just drowsiness. It is that easy to end a life.