Life is precious Life is precious. We forget, at times, how important life is. It is hard sometimes, to continue on with the flow of things, especially when we are punched in the gut and kicked in the shins. As human beings, we are only little dots in the line of history. We are like a blossom on a flower bush; we are here to spread our colors and beauty for only a short amount of time before the sun, the rain, and the wind withers us away. We forget that we are mortal. We forget that we are no invincible. We forget that soon, we are entering a new generation and a new era. We forget many things about life because we don't stop to admire it for what it is. Of course, it is as cruel as it is beautiful. But the thing I have learned is to make the most of what you have. The devil is always there to give you a heck of a time, but take it as a lesson - become stronger. Don't be like a little weak and thimble blade of grass; be a strong palm in the desert sun. I am saying this because I have had to go through torments. I have seen death. I have seen how quickly it ends and how quickly it begins. Death is a strange thing, in many ways, a strange thing in that it is, at many times, hard to understand. It is a final verdict we cannot escape from, and which we all eventually have to face. There is no feeling in the world that can describe the feeling of knowing death is near. There is no word to accurately describe the emotions you get when you are surrounded by death and the dying. It is a feeling of absolute silence, of hesitant acceptance, and of anticipation. It is hard for me to say completely, how I feel on this subject because we all come from different backgrounds. We all have different opinions on this subject. We all have different emotions regarding this subject. My grandmother is a woman who has faced cancer and whose trials and tribulations have shown me to the world of death. Those long and hard years changed my aspect of life completely. I never prayed to God before now, and I didn't even know if he would hear me. I didn't even know if he existed. I didn't know anything except the physical world which was in front of me and which I could touch. When she said she had cancer - it was no longer something I could avoid. It was like being at twilight and the sun does not know whether to set or rise...or even stay where it is. It seemed time had stopped, completely. I saw, with those days I would skip school to go to the hospital with my grandmother, what it was like to be surrounded by death. I was once afraid of death, but something in me changed about it. I wouldn't say it was a fascination, I wouldn't say it was an obsession, it was an emotion and a thought that I couldn't put my finger on exactly. It was the realization in me, and in everyone around me, that we forget how important life is until the very moment it is about to slip away from us. It is like grains of sands between our fingers...it falls away one by one. Every moment of beauty we should cherish on this earth, every moment is important. I might be criticized for my viewpoints. I might cause someone distress. I have no idea how one will take what I have written. But please understand what I have written. Please read every word I have said and understand that it means something to me. I can't explain, accurately, every thought I have, because it would sound weird and disjointed if I tried. From all these years, and even today, I have come to see death as something we can gain and learn from. In death there is life. In death there is knowledge left behind. There are hopes, frustrations, and loves left behind that we can continue to furnish. It is a world we don't know of yet, but it is a world we will soon enter. Even if everything I know might not be what it is in the end, I will know that I learned something in this life. I learned something and I left behind my footprint in the sand.