Life is unpredictable for anyone, no matter where you come from or who you are, but when you are born with a disability and grow up in the disability community, then you learn from an early age that it can be short. Besides my family, my classmates started passing away in middle school. I’ll never forget the day I came home from camp and the first thing Dad said to me was one of my classmates suddenly passed away. I was shocked and sad. After that a few of my friends passed, but it wasn’t until I was 27 that my close friends started passing away frequently. Some of them expectedly and some of them not and it’s been like that for the past 10 years.
Life is short and can change in the blink of an eye sometimes. One time I came home from a weekend event and my aging grandmother said to me did you see all your friends and did you see your dead friends too because you have a lot of them. That comment was out of left field, but it was the truth. Now that I’m 37 I have lost a good number of the friends I have been with since elementary school and for some reason 40 and after seems like a cliff. You make it to 40 and after it’s amazing because a lot of people have trouble around that age.
Now, when you hear that someone went to the hospital or something major is going on with them, you get scared and wonder if they’re gonna get better or if you are going to get to see them again. You can be surprised that people who seem healthier than you and who are healthier than you, sometimes crazy things happen, and they pass away or their body changes completely. Then you have people who could be less healthy than you, but they can be going very well for a very long time.
Life is unpredictable so you should live it up while you can. Explore your neighborhood, go to the concert, buy things that you like, and enjoy your friends and family. Take care of yourself and treat yourself. YOLO