Reality by: Stanley Chuang

I believe in accepting reality.

July 12, 2016, it was the summer we were moving into 6th grade. I remember this day so clearly. The normal summer days flew by with boredom. It all started when a message popped up on my computer. It was from one of my friends. He told me that one of my other friends died from a car crash. I replied with “yeah right” because I thought it was a joke.

It wasn’t.

Later that day, my mom came home and asked if I knew that a classmate died. She handed me her phone and I read the email in shock. I didn’t want to believe it. My mind spiraled into a jumble of thoughts and it couldn’t think correctly for the next couple of days. The weirdest thing is I didn’t cry. Funny how death is the saddest thing and I didn’t show any emotion. It made me self doubt myself. I was dreadful of course but I already knew that I couldn’t stay like this forever.

So I moved on. It was hard, especially when it feels like you’re abandoning your best friend. I forced the thoughts away and it almost felt like there was a battle between my friendship and my own feelings. That’s when I decided to make a compromise with my brain. I made something. Something that could keep me attached to the memories that I’ve kept. Something I could have with me all the time. I still have it and I still use it because I will never forget the things we did together and the valuable memories we made.

Since then, I have learned to value the purpose of everything that happens. As cliche as it seems, everything happens for a reason and you have a choice on how you want to react to it.