Life is weird sometimes. As Tom Hanks famously said portraying Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you`re gonna get."
There are moments in my life where I have experienced the true meaning of that quote firsthand, and they are not always the best of moments. I recently had a moment like this where life just seemed to throw me a curveball, and I just stood there frozen at the plate not knowing how to react. Things were planned out, and then something happened that made the plans go sour, and the day became like a box of melted chocolate: very unexpected.
On Saturday September 17th , my girlfriend and I were to attend a house warming party for friends that we know, as they had bought their own house and got engaged. The plan was to go to their house for their party, have fun among friends, and to basically celebrate a new chapter in their lives. But life had a different plan in the form of a friend passing away two weeks before the party. The celebration of her life was scheduled the same morning as the house warming party. It was on that day I experienced the box of melted chocolates.
Now, a celebration of life comes in different forms. A funeral is referred to as a celebration of life because it is a time where friends and family come together to reminisce on the good times and bad times, and to remember someone who has had an impact on our lives. On that morning, I attended the celebration of life for a friend who lost their battle to cancer/pneumonia. They had a friend from college who was in the same group of friends that I was in and I joined in with my freshman year. We were also in band together. They were one of the smartest people I had known, and they had just recently graduated from the college. They kept their sickness a secret, excluding family and close friends, which made their passing unexpected. Among her celebration of life were fellow friends and alumni, along with faculty members from the college along with their family. A professor of mine resided over the funeral, being an ordained minister, and the president of the college spoke about them. Hearing a professor that I have had classes with get chocked up is something I never thought I would experience. Being with friends grieving over the loss of our friend is something that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
After the reception, I met up with my girlfriend and headed over to the house warming party that we planned to attend. Upon arriving to our friend’s house, it was still early into the afternoon and it was only a few family members and friends of theirs at the house; the party picked up into the night. I was drained and all I wanted to do was sleep. I interacted with my friends but for the most part I was in a fog. I didn’t know what to feel at that point. After a few hours and a trip to the convenient store up the road and back to the party, I became more active as more people arrived and more friends and coworkers showed up and the party got going. I had a fun time among my peers enjoying games and just random conversations and whatever was going on, but the events of the morning still had me down.
It felt weird from the moment I awoke that morning that I would be attending a funeral and then going to a party. I didn’t know how to react to the situation; how do you react to something like this? Going from one form of celebrating a life, to a celebration that is the complete opposite; one being a celebration of a life that has ended, and the other for a new begging. This is the box of melted chocolates that I didn’t know I was going to get. This day was just an odd day that I did not know how to respond to. It’s a situation that nothing can prepare us for. It was the day where I just kept thinking “so this is life, huh?” To add to the oddness, it was the same day another set of friends got married by the court. They attended the house warming party after it happened. It`s just weird and off putting that in one day we can go from death to life like that. Thinking back on it just makes me remember that life truly is fragile and that things can change on a dime and that we are not, and will not, be fully prepared for whatever may come our way. This is truly a day that will stick with me for as long as I continue to live because of the impact it had on me, and on others.
To my friends who are engaged and had me and my girlfriend over for the housewarming party, congratulations, and thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. To my friends who got married that day, congratulations to you, and I hope you two have a happy life. To the family of the friend who’s passed away, thank you sharing them with us, they were an amazing person, and I am grateful that I knew them. They will be missed.
