This article isn’t supposed to be a sad one, but the point of it is to express how lucky and blessed most of us are. For those that aren’t so lucky, I express my dearest condolences.

I’m going to refrain from using his name for privacy reasons, but my friend “John” is having to deal with something that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I first met John when we were playing pick-up basketball. He seemed really cool and afterwards, we exchanged phone numbers. I didn’t get to know him very well until we pledged for the same fraternity. John may be one of the nicest guys I have ever met and at first glance, you wouldn’t think anything in his life is going wrong. However, I learned some news recently that made me feel very depressed and resulted in him leaving college and putting everything in his life on pause.

John’s mom has a very rare form of brain cancer called Glioblastoma, which mutates very rapidly. The tumor is placed in the center of her brain and can’t be operated on. It is pushing up against parts of the brain that affect a lot of things she would normally be able to do. Until recently, the tumor has been relatively controlled. However, the medical staff is starting to run out of existing medicines to use. On Monday, February 29, John and his family went to have a meeting with the doctor to see what the options were. There were only two: either put her on hospice and completely give up or have her keep fighting no matter what it took. This brave, courageous woman chose to keep fighting. They are taking it day by day because they don’t know what is going to happen. On March 4, John texted all of his pledge brothers, letting us know that his mom’s pulse went down to 36 beats per minute (BPM). For those that don’t know, anything below 40 can be fatal. After quadruple checking it, their family said some prayers and let her sleep. She woke up the next morning with a pulse of 52 BPM. John said in his text message that they are glad that she was able to wake up, but the future doesn’t look very compelling.

As of right now, John and his family don’t know what the future will hold. All he knows is that he has a very special friend group behind him and his family, that will be there for him to lean on. I just want to express to whoever reads this, that nothing in life is guaranteed. Be thankful for whatever you have, even if it isn’t a lot. There are people in this world that are going through so much, and most of it, you wouldn’t even know about. To whoever may read this, I ask that you express your feelings to all your loved ones; you really don’t know how long you have with them.