June 20th, 2008.

It should have been one of the best days of a teenager’s life, the last day of 8th grade, the last day of middle school before next year where I would be a freshman in high school. But instead of signing yearbooks and saying goodbyes to my teachers I was sitting in a funeral home listening to the silent sniffles of my family around me. I was at my 70 year old grandma or Meme as I called her, funeral. Dressed in my nicest clothes trying to comprehend everything that was going on around me still wishing I could just be at school celebrating the last day with all my classmates. I sat quietly with no emotion, listening, as more relatives and people I have never met in my life go up and give their condolences to my family. At the young age of 13 this was the first funeral I had been to where I was actually old enough to understand the events unraveling around me. I held all of my emotions in through the condolences and readings not wanting to bawl hysterically in front of people. But once I reached the car to head to the church I lost it. I sat there in the front seat of the car shaking and trying to stop the tears as my mom sat in the driver’s seat saying, “It will all be okay.”

Those words have stuck with me ever since that day. Those five simple words that are so unbelievable at the time are what people are told every day. As unbelievable as those words are they must be true because we are still standing here today. After having been to six funerals already and I am only seventeen I have a long life ahead of me. These five words are said from friend to friend, husband to wife, brother to sister, doctor to patient and each time they mean so little in that exact moment but later in life will mean so much.

It is not until I sat in front of my computer three years later typing this essay that I look back and see that everything did turn out okay. I have successfully made it through three years of high school and am looking forward to my senior year. I have been the best daughter I could possibly be for my parents. I am an awesome aunt to my six year old niece. I have kept friends throughout my entire high school career. I made the varsity basketball team and played in the State Semi-final game at the TD Garden. My life did turn out okay and I know it will only get better if I keep pursuing my hopes and dreams.

As I move on in my life looking to go to college and receive the education that will bring me one step closer to achieving my goals I will always keep those words in the back of my head. As I sit in class before a big final worrying about the what-if, I will just remember those five simple words my mom told me, “It will all be okay.”