The Bigger Picture

I just learned of the death of a peer. Unbeknownst to me until yesterday, she spent the last year of her 25 battling kidney cancer that quickly spread throughout her body. I cannot say that I knew her well, or had even seen her since high school, but as anyone from a small town can attest, news like this has an effect.

Looking at a young girl, who battled and fought, it is hard to look at your own life, or the lives of those around you and dwell on negativity. With logical thinking, the problems of our everyday lives seem so miniscule. In fact, they are. How can anyone justify the problems in their life when envisioning a family who has just lost everything in the form of a 25-year old girl?

As a teenager, I knew this girl as a very kind and likable girl. I can tell, by seeing the outpouring of support, that she grown up to be much more than that. Looking into the level of people she had supporting her throughout her illness, and now in the aftermath, it is quiet evident that she was exceptional. Masses of people do not respond in that way for just anyone.

In a time that I am sure her family is unconsolable, I pray that they find comfort in knowing that their daughter, sister, and friend served as an inspiration to so many. In her young life, a life that was certainly too short, she has made a difference.