Nostalgia

Well looks like this blog has turned into a fortnightly thing rather than weekly! And I warn the next post is horrifically structured and probably of no interest to anyone at all.

In need of a good vent today. I’m feeling painfully nostalgic due to a certain Facebook photo. I lost a great friend of mine in July 2012 to cancer. He was a fantastic person with an equally fantastic family. I posted a tribute to him on Facebook back in July which his mother has obviously just stumbled across and liked, spurring on a good 20 more. They keep coming and I just want to take it down. It’s tearing at a wound that had never (and will never) properly sealed but that had reduced significantly. Happy memories we shared had replaced the awful ones of his final days. But the point is I turn 21 this year and although this is by no means old it is official adulthood. It’s a milestone birthday. A milestone that I am more than happy to reach but it hurts so much that my friend, and many, many other people will never reach it.

And, where has the time gone? 

My parents moved me to a foreign country at the age of 9. This was my second European move, my first being less influential at 2 years of age. They popped me into a local school thinking it would be the best way to learn the language and integrate into the culture. At 11 had to change schools and start secondary. This is where I met my friend who quickly became one of the best friends I have ever had and will ever have in my life. He was such an amazing person. I’m no stranger to death as I come from a huge family. My parents have never hidden funerals or death from me and funerals quickly became a (bi)annual event. But his was so different. This wasn’t an old uncle, a sick distant cousin or a grandparent. This was a happy, healthy friend of mine. My age. Someone I’ve grown up with, someone I’ve shared some of my best memories with. Someone I loved with all my heart. 

This blog post goes out to all the parents who have had to bury a child. It’s wrong and shouldn’t happen. 

EMT.

Something I’ve learnt today
– The past has been, the future is yet to come but the present is now.

Something that made me smile (and cry) today
– Reminiscing.