Over winter break, my family and I took a trip to Puerto Rico. Though this trip was possibly my all-time favorite trip, there was a haunting experience that I will never forget. My family and I had just gotten back from walking around the streets of San Juan when we entered our fantastic condo. This condo was on the beach and overlooked a half-mile of sand and water. While everyone was settling in for the afternoon, my dad walked over to the porch to look out to the ocean.
“Hey, hey, hey!” My dad screamed to the rest of us to come out to the balcony. I had no clue what it was, but the way his voice sounded, it wasn’t good. As I rushed over to the railing and looked down to the beach, my heart began to beat twice as fast as before. My eyes shut in fear and my hands grasped the railing tighter than the twist in my stomach. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
There, on the beach and just above the water line, stood a group of people surrounding the one thing nobody ever wants to see: a limp body. It was a man who had gotten caught in the waves and couldn’t catch his breath in time, at which point, his friend dove in and pulled him out. For about 10 minutes, people were rotating pumping his chest and searching for a heartbeat, searching for life. Finally, the paramedics showed up and resuscitated him. He had a lot of water lodged in his lungs but he was alive and that was all that mattered.
To think about watching life leave a human form is one of the scariest things in the world to me. One minute it is so beautiful, and the next, that beauty is stripped away and thrown out in the wind. It is unimaginable to have this happen to someone you are close to, but the reality is that it could happen at any time. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to tell your loved ones that you actually love them. Let someone know you appreciate them. When people say life is short, they aren't kidding. When I watched this man almost die on my vacation, my throat tightened up and it felt like I was the one who couldn't breathe. I was searching and searching for hope, for life.
Life is so precious, yet it is constantly taken for granted. Watching these people surround this man’s body with fear in their eyes and emptiness in their hearts made me realize anybody can leave this world just as abruptly as they entered it. Isn’t that crazy? My thoughts are constantly searching for completion on the matter. How can one’s soul be so quickly taken from the body it resided in just a second ago? Life is talked about like it’s given to anyone and people talk about how “life is hard,” but you are lucky to be here. Don't forget that. Every breath you take is a gift, and one that is not to be taken for granted.
