Surprises

What a year. College applications and decisions and scholarship applications for the colleges I hopefully would get in to, Northwest Passage Trip, Rose Parade Trip, PROM/Prom Committee, Senior Sing, and all the other pre-graduation activities. Not to mention two AP courses and discovering Senioritis is a real (and potentially dangerous) "disease". But when I strip down the year, peel off the special, only for senior activities, and the only-this-year activities, I think of the three people who vanished from my life. Two I didn't really know besides seeing them around campus and in the ITV room and hearing tidbits over the past four years from my friends. The third I saw and talked to at family mochi pounding, New Year's Eve parties, and when he came by to visit my grandpa or if I happened to pass him and my Aunty at Zippy's or Kahala Mall. None of the three should have died. Isn't that weird to say? Can anyone should not have died? If someone dies, I guess it can be comforting to think that it was simply their time to go. You know, so there's not as much anger and regret to think that they "went before their time". I don't really buy that. I guess, as a daughter, that I cannot see a parent die when the children are still young and believe that it was the parent's time to go. I cannot imagine what it would be like if my Dad died or if I grew up with no memories of my Dad. Another part of me hasn't accepted the third person's death, not yet. Even though I went to the funeral service and saw the urn and crying relatives I cannot really believe that I won't see him at the next mochi pounding sitting next to the wooden rice cooker tending the fire with my Grandpa. This past year reminded me that none are impervious to death. So if there's anything I learned this year, it's to make sure good-byes end on good notes because you never know when it may be the last.