By Mallory Thompson

Life can be many things. It can be beautiful, breathtaking, exciting, scary, cruel, unjust, or simply boring. Life is a wonderful thing that no one should take for granted. Life is a gift. However, this gift is not always what we want it to be. It is not always pretty or easy. Sometimes it is ugly and difficult. This I believe: that no matter what life goes on. Life does not wait for anyone or anything.  

Since I was little life has not been easy. My dad and mom split when I was six. I am going on seventeen and haven’t seen him since then. My mom was not around much when I was growing up because something else was more important.

My grandma raised me with what little she had. The relationship between my mom and I has always been one of animosity and tension. She has been like a volcano; you never know when she’s going to erupt again. I have witnessed her erupt multiple times in my life for various reasons.

Once when I was in first grade, my mom, grandma, and brother all got into an argument. My mom involved one of her many boyfriends through the years and things got ugly. When things got ugly my mom decided her and I were going to live with her boyfriend for around four months. I cried myself to sleep every night for weeks because I was taken away from my home and everything I knew. These explosions are difficult and scary.

A little over a month ago, my mom and her current boyfriend got into an argument after a night of drinking. He left the house and went home. My mom was upset, and I tried to do something nice for her. I got yelled at and told she didn’t want anything from me. I ran away to my friend’s bawling my eyes out. On the way I receive a text from my mom saying that I need to give up my jeep and that she is leaving. I did not know what was going to happen in either of those situations, but life went on like it always does.  

When I was in fourth grade, I went to school on a normal Thursday. I was playing on the playground and singing with friends like usual. Suddenly, I get called to go home early. While on my way to the office my gut told me that something was wrong with Bubba, my brother.

When I got to the office my guidance counselor took me to a back room where my mom was sitting. I sat in her lap and she told me the worse news of my life. Bubba had passed away. My whole world crashed down around me. I had lost the only man in my life that had stayed and loved me. My brother was fourteen years older than me, so we had a special bond. He was the first person to hold me when I was born.

As I grew up, he watched me and took care of me like a good big brother. However, my brother struggled with drug addiction which was ultimately what caused his death. Despite receiving the worse news of my life, I went to school the next day because life goes on. My brother’s death has caused tension between my mom and grandma and I am stuck in the middle.  

There are days where we want the world to stop spinning, time to be frozen still, and for life to just stop. There are times in our lives where we think life is going to end and that everything is over. However, it is not. Life goes on.

Time keeps ticking and the world keeps spinning. I have learned from all the bad times in my life that no matter what I feel or think that life will go on with or without me. Work and school don’t just stop because you decide not to go. The world doesn’t stop spinning just because you decide to stay in bed all day. The beautiful thing about life is that it goes on. But the sad thing is life goes on whether we want it to or not.

One cannot simply roll over and die when they are faced with the difficulties of life. If life goes on why not make the most out of it? If the world is going to keep spinning when you don’t want it to you might has well learn to love life and live it while you’re still here.