Ram Page

Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: Views

Aaron Lee

Eighty-two years old.

That is how old my grandfather was when he passed away Sunday morning in his Miami condo.

I am coming to the realization that death is constantly around us, and there is nothing we can do about it.

My grandfather's passing isn't the reason this column is being written, but he is the inspiration. My first experience with death was in kindergarten. My cat Mittens died and my mother told me he ran away.

Little did I know he was buried in the backyard. My mother later told me that he was hit by a car and died. Things became much heavier when two of my fellow teammates on my high school football team were murdered when I was 18. A week after that, a good friend of mine died from a motorcycle accident.

I recently had my own brush with death when I smashed my sports car into a cement pillar. A fellow Ram Page staff member was in the car with me and we both came out completely fine. That got me thinking, mainly about how nothing is promised to us. Everything you have can be taken away at the blink of an eye.

Maybe this is me maturing. Maybe this is me trying to rationalize the fact that I most likely will not have any say in my own demise.

Or maybe this is me trying to tell anyone who reads this that just because you go to sleep doesn't mean you are going to wake up.

That is a harsh realization to come to. The reaper is stalking all of us. This column isn't my usual sarcastic, cynical opinion, but rather a man just trying to understand. Trying to understand death is damn near impossible; trust me I have tried.

No one ever addresses death but everyone knows is there. Understanding death may be beyond my comprehension but learning from death is not.

Sometimes in college, or the real world for that matter, we get caught up in things that are trivial. It takes something like death to realize that these trivial things actually do not matter. What matters is how you live your life and what impact you make on others. This is what death has taught me.

The 18-year-old Aaron drowned himself in booze to hide from the emotions that death brings. But four long years have gone by, and now I realize that death should not be feared. Life is too short to fear death all the time. Blue Oyster Cult said it best, "Don't fear the reaper." That is easier said than done.

Death is the unknown, and the unknown is frightening.

But the one positive thing death has taught me is once you stop fearing death, you fear nothing.

I am slowly learning that tomorrow is not promised to anyone. So for anyone that got this far into my rant, I leave you with this: live everyday like it will be your last because one day it will be.

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