In the summer of 2013, The "Ice Bucket Challenge" blew up on every platform of social media. From Facebook to Instagram and even some forms of cable news, everyones feeds were plastered with friends having a good laugh dousing themselves with ice water.
This challenge begin with the hopes of raising an awareness for ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that slowly shuts you down into death, there is currently still no cure.
The ice was supposed to act as a numbing effect to peoples bodies as to show what it is like to suffer from ALS and not be able to move your limbs.
In 2013 I payed this challenge no mind, it was just something else that would slowly burn out, and it did. The fall of 2015 I realized more than ever how truly important this challenge was when I received the news that my own grandfather was diagnosed.
For months on end two summers before, I ignored what was going to be a monumental catastrophe to my life.
What was supposed to be something to raise awareness and hope for a cure, was turned into girls wearing their cutest bathing suits, boys pranking their friends, and “epic fails of the ice bucket challenge”. What was funny to me then is utterly distasteful to me now. This helped me realize that something that may not be important to you, is more than likely astronomical to someone else.
I slowly realized as I watched my grandfathers heart wrenching decline, that the ice bucket challenge was no where close to how ALS actually effects someone, and all of those around them. ALS is an evil disease, that traps a persons soul in their body, allowing them to still live on in their minds, but to not be able to act on anything, and slowly by the end, suffocating within their own lungs. Thinking about how this is an genetic disorder only leaves me that much more frightened, and that much more willing to do my part.
I feel no one sheds enough light onto this situation. Although there are much fewer people affected than other incomprehensible diseases, we are in such darkness about this one. It breaks my heart thinking about how I personally barely looked into it. Now sitting in an empty home, helping my grandma move boxes from what once held the entirety of my childhood, I stared at the empty spot on the couch that was once my grandfathers, and only hoped for a coming turn.
There are many people unaffected by ALS, and many people who still are not quite sure what it is, more than anything now I realize that we need to take more time to be understanding, compassionate, not everything is fun or funny for everyone. Each person you pass, is fighting their own battle. It's hard to pay mind to each organization we see, but it is easy to find the time to be merciful. Remember, kindness doesn’t cost a single penny. More than anything, we must cherish each passing moment we have with the ones we love, no problem is too big to overcome with hope and love, anything is possible.
Although I lost my grandfather, I hope that in coming years we can learn from yet another case, and take steps forward in reaching a cure. August is ALS awareness month, and it brings me to tears having to face the feelings I buried 7 months ago with my grandfather, but there is a small flame of hope that there should be focus on. Find my own personal Ice Bucket Challenge on my Facebook page, and always remember to be the change you wish to see.
I encourage everyone to start their own “Ice Bucket Challenge” with the correct intentions held in their hearts. Although donations to the ALS organization are appreciated, raising awareness holds great importance as well. "This August and every August until there's a cure." To find more information please visit http://www.alsa.org/
“Life is a series of pulls back and forth… A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band.. And most of us live somewhere in the middle… Sounds like a wrestling match, I say...So which side wins, I ask?.. Love wins. Love always wins.” - Mitch Albom (Tuesdays With Morrie)
