So I know I was on here a little less than a month ago, promising that I would be up-to-date with my blogging. I even tried to do a 30-Day Challenge to get me back into the swing of things, but look how that worked out (though I do plan to fulfill that challenge because I really want to do it). I need to be on here and write, though. Actually write a quality blog post that no one will ever see but myself, and I'm fine with that. I just need to get back on here and start writing for me again, like I always used to. So I'll start with the most recent event that brought me back here initially.
A very dear friend of mine, Sarah, made it known to me that her boyfriend's father had passed away from cancer last week. She asked me a huge favor, and that was to try and make my presence known to him if he needed to talk to anyone, or if he had any questions that he wanted to ask, or maybe just know the feeling of having someone in your life who knows exactly what you're going through. I had met him a few times, but we were nowhere near close, but of course, I agreed to it. I wanted to help him and contribute in any way that I could, and if this was the way to do it, then I was ready to offer anything, by all means.
Sarah and I went over to Uriel's house tonight for a few hours. He had a bunch of his friends over from school (he goes to Yale), and I very quickly realized that I was the only non-Jew in the entire house. I'll admit, I felt a little awkward, but I wasn't there to feel comfortable; no one could really feel comfortable after something like that anyway, so it was alright, I suppose. They held a Hebrew prayer for his father and I stood in silence with respect as they honored him. After his friends had left, we relocated to his room and talked about anything that he wanted to talk about, mostly just comparing our stories and telling each other the details and trying to bond on that level. I think it was good for him to be able to talk about it with someone who can really understand what he is going through and what he still has to go through now that this has happened. I can only hope that he will take advantage of having someone there if he ever feels that he needs to talk about anything at all.
However, what I found really great was the ride home with Sarah. The whole time while Uriel and I were talking, she was silently and patiently sitting there, listening to us, and absorbing the conversation. She had never really heard my story before, and for the long time that we have been friends, she never really found an appropriate way of possibly bringing it up to me or trying to talk about it. She knew from our other mutual friends what had happened to me when I was younger, but she had never heard the full back story from me until tonight. She drove me back to my house, and for about twenty minutes, we were just idling in my driveway, talking about what I had gone through.
She brought up an interesting point that I have always thought about, but I was surprised and proud of her that she was able to see this out of what she had taken in from my story earlier...she remarked on the fact that so many people experience the pain of cancer, and yet you never really think about how someone's life is totally marred by it. She had never fully understood how so many can hurt so deeply, and that you would think that something like that would be so rare and uncommon, yet it is all around us. I told her that everyone you know knows at least three people who have been affected by cancer in some way or another. It is a real eye-opener to digest something on that kind of grand scale, in my opinion.
She wanted to know more about what I had gone through, asking me if I had ever gone to therapy and how I coped at a young age and all of those kinds of questions. I was happy to answer them, of course, because Sarah is a great friend to me and I thought she should know everything there is to know about me. I explained all of it to her, probably giving her a shit load to take in, really. Though, when our conversation came to an end and I moved to get out of the car, she gave me such an endearing, loving hug that really said to me that she was very happy to have had the chance to hear me in my most vulnerable state, and she thanked me for that. And I thanked her as well, for listening to what I had to say, and letting me voice everything freely because she made it known that she cared and wanted to know. I am so blessed to have certain people who I can really trust and talk to and fall back on in my life, and she is definitely one of those people so near and dear to my heart; one of those people who I would do anything for because I know that they would, in turn, reciprocate and do the exact same for me if need be.
