How are we supposed to react when someone who has been around us, all of a sudden, goes off the map, for good?
What could be called "appropriate behavior" for when someone passes away?
A few days ago, a friend found herself in the right place, just at the right time, but not for the best.
How is it that circumstances conspire with one another, planning ahead, and getting all together for a marked instant, in which fate is decided, and things change completely?
If I'm absolutely honest, I wouldn't say that I had a deep bond with this particular person. But she was a classmate of mine, and I'd like to think, that, even if the time we spent together was short, we became friends.
It's an out-worldly feeling, the one you get when you arrive to a place to keep up with the routine, and then, you find out that a person you took for granted won't be there, anymore. At least, that's how it is in my case, there's a sort of chain reaction inside me, born from the fact that reality was forever changed in just a few decisive instants.
This kind of events plunge me into deep thinking, and it takes a while to get back in touch with the real-world everyday routine; such an unfortunate string of overlapping variables, fulfilled one over another, could happen to anyone of us. Being hit like a tidal wave by the realization that anything or anyone we take for granted could just vanish in seconds, has the power to shake you and make re-evaluate a couple of things in your life, to say the least.
Blinded at first by feelings, it seems so unfair that such a young soul, cheerful, lively would have all of her remaining time here by the whimsical desires of destiny, but such is life and we have to keep on moving.
A while ago I was just reflecting on how ceremonies and mourning are for us, the ones left behind, and constitute a symbol through which we can give some logical shape to our feelings about the matter, and the changes in our reality, though if one really thinks about it, it wouldn't really have any meaning to the person herself as he/she is already gone.
Or would it? Because memories and history are also a thing, part of our everyday lives and the fuel for many of the choices we take...
All in all, I hope she finds herself in a better place now, and we'll remember the happy bits, which I think is the best way to go forward and the best we can offer to her.
