I woke up Friday morning to my two best friends sleeping down the hall from me. They had come all the way from Iowa to the suburbs of Chicago to visit me for three days over our winter break. A little cranky from being so tired, we said our "I love yous" and "goodbyes" that morning and they started their drive back to Iowa. At 5:37 p.m., I woke up from my afternoon nap to a text from one of the girls. They had hit ice about halfway home and rolled their car off of the road and into a ditch. The car was completely flipped on its side and damaged and was taken away to be towed. The girls, however, made it out fine somehow. Bruised, scared, swollen, possibly concussed, and upset, but alive. These are my best friends we are talking about. The girls that I rely on every day to talk to me, make me smile, and hold my heart. I hear stories all the time about people getting in car accidents, but you never know that it can happen until it happens to either yourself or someone you hold close to you. The same goes for things like suicide. I never knew it actually happened until one of my best friends attempted this summer and my mom and I had to rush him to the ER. But even then, I did not know it actually happened until one of my own friends successfully committed this fall.
People are so temporary. They decide they don't like you anymore, they leave, and some of them become angels way too soon. Some love may last forever, but humans themselves do not stay for very long. Life is much shorter than we believe it to be. It may feel long some days, but a human life is truly a short amount of time in the grand scheme of things.
We need to tell people how we feel about them. Because clearly, it's possible for opportunities like that to be taken away in an instant. Tell the girl at the bar that you think she is beautiful. Tell your girlfriend or boyfriend that you love and adore them. Tell your family that they are so special to you. Even if it gets annoying, or the girl at the bar doesn't like you back, or you haven't seen your oldest sibling in years, tell people the truth about how you feel about them.
Many people say the words "I love you" are thrown around too much. I'm a culprit of this myself; I love the girl I sit next to in class, the funny boy in my class who I've never said a word to, and my best friends' pets. The phrase is used so many times a day, but at least those people are explaining how they feel. Wouldn't you rather risk using it instead of never using it at all?
