I guess you could say I'd always taken life for granted. I never appreciated the fact that I had the ability to wake up every morning and seize the day. It wasn't until my family had a very scary experience that really changed my point of view about life. A couple of months ago, my brother landed in the hospital for a serious condition and it set the defining truth that I swore to live by: never take your life or loved ones' lives for granted.
At first it seemed like a normal flu. A couple of bags of used tissues and days spent in bed and the flu would be gone. My brother had gone to multiple doctors who all brushed it off with antibiotics, unaware of what they should be looking for. Then, on a Wednesday night, it had all gone downhill very fast. He couldn't breathe and was coughing up a storm, so my dad took him to the emergency room. I spent the whole next day at school in confusion, as my parents tried to keep me from
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It was unknown whether he was strong enough to have the heart surgery he needed so badly or even if he would make it through the night. We all spent the night in the waiting room, taking turns sleeping on the incredibly small and very uncomfortable couch. I can confidently say that was one of the worst nights of my life. It hit me that I might actually lose my brother and I prayed that I would just get to keep him. The next couple of days went on like this, with different family members coming and going. So, naturally, everyone was ecstatic when my brother finally woke up. It was the best feeling in the world, knowing that he was awake after days of struggling, in and out of surgeries. It was a long road of recovery for my brother. It took days just to be able to sit up, even longer to get used to walking again. It consisted of two more weeks stuck in the hospital bed and a complete transformation of his regular lifestyle. However, compared to all that happened, the recovery seemed like a piece of