Throughout my entire lifetime, many people have asked me, “What are you scared of?” Now, typically my answer would be something silly, such as “Oh, I’m afraid of bugs and snakes,” or “I’m scared of clowns.” While those may be true, I wouldn’t necessarily count it as a deep rooted fear of mine, however, the thought of losing someone I care about is. Instead of writing and going on about my fear, I decided to narrate it through a short story just to spice things up a bit.
“I stood at the top of the building with my face pressed against the glass window,
looking at all the tiny buildings and hills in the distance. I couldn’t help but notice that the sights before me looked very unrealistic, almost fake. It reminded me of a popular saying I once read in a John Green book, “It’s all paper towns. We're all just paper people living in paper houses that are built to fall apart.” So what I realised is that in this world of illusions, what scares me is not that I’m temporary, or that I’m going to be replaced and forgotten about eventually, but that someone I love is.
I fear the day that I wake up to a call telling me that people close to my heart no longer live. One day I'll text them and no matter how long I wait, I'll never get an answer. They’ll never pick up any of my calls, and the only time I'd get to hear their voice again is when I'm sent to voicemail. I’d see a sunset that would remind me of them, but I’ll never get to tell them about it. The worst part is, there’ll never be another one person like them ever again, and I’d just have to live with the emptiness of never seeing them again.
The thing about the world is that we all have snipers aiming at our hearts, but the
true terror arrives when that bullet doesn't hit you, but takes out a person you love,
especially when you don't get to say goodbye. You just never know when you’ll never see someone again, and what a tragedy it must be to live with the fact that you never even got to say “I love you.”
So if I were to give you a piece of advice, it would be, “Go tell your mom, dad, sister, bestfriend, anyone, how much you love them because you truly never know what the future holds for you.” :)