When
I was thirteen years old, my best friend’s mother Dawn passed away
due to a long battle with stage four breast cancer. This is something
that helped me mature and learn how to be there for her and for other
people. It was a very hard thing to go through for my best friend
Emily, myself, and the entire community that her death affected.

Maturity
and the ability to be there for others are very important traits that
one needs in life, and the death of Emily’s mother is an event that
taught me these qualities. When her mother eventually passed on March
18, 2016, I learned that life isn’t always going to be perfect and
happy, and that bad things happen to good people. Her mother didn’t
deserve to have to battle with such an illness, and Emily didn’t
deserve to have to go through this major loss and event at such a
young age––we were only thirteen.

After
Dawn’s passing and witnessing how much it affected Emily, I
realized the importance of being there for people. Emily didn’t go
to school very often at that point, she was always unhappy, and she
had to witness the sadness her family was experiencing. This pushed
me to realize that I needed to do something to help. I started
consistently checking in with her, gave her gifts I knew would help
make her more happy, and did everything I could to make her feel
better. Eventually, Dawn’s funeral came around. I made sure that I
went to support my best friend and the rest of her family.

I
realized how much I had helped Emily throughout the entirety of the
situation when her father, Derek, confronted my parents at Dawn’s
funeral and thanked them for coming, along with explaining how much I
had helped Emily through the difficult times she had gone through.
Hearing my parents describe this to me on the car ride home made me
realize how important it actually was to be there and to help people.
I could never imagine having to go through the trauma that Emily had
to go through at such a young age, so having the support of her
closest friends and her family had to have made a tremendous
difference.
This
situation helped to shape me into a more mature person today. I now
am able to be supportive of other people, and I realize that life is
not perfect, no matter what anybody says. I was shaped and prepared
for my next stages in life due to this experience, and I now feel
ready to take on the world and my future. I feel as if I am fully
prepared to face other difficult times throughout life, and to be a
line of support for anybody in need. I understand how much impact a
single person can have, whether it be somebody's death or somebody
acting as your life line and supporting you in difficult times.