We read an essay today in College Literature that discussed how in America, we don't have celebrations or community involvement when a child becomes an adult. I have to agree with that! All of the "important" times in our lives when kids think they become adult, the community is not involved and it is very taboo.
When I was younger, I saw a lot of traumatic events happen back to back. My dad was informed that he would die before the end of the year if he didn't receive a transplant. That June, he got the call and we drove to the hospital and spent a couple weeks there. After that he was in and out of the hospital on average six+ times a year for follow ups and other health complications. Then, just a little over a year later, my cousin was the victim of a drunk driver and suffered a severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and was left partially paralyzed and in a wheel chair. After that, my grandfather died from cancer and I was old enough by then to sort of get what was going on, but didn't believe that he was really gone. My family moved right after that, and life got some what easier because we were closer to the transplant center and it wasn't as much of a hardship when my dad would have to be admitted to the hospital, but emergency room visits never got easy. The best part of him being in the hospital, is that I learned to become independent and grew close to my sister...we would hunt around the hospital, getting food from the nurses' station and finding all the free drink stands in the hospital
Going through all this hardship and difficult times, I have to say that I have been changed forever; and would consider them to be my "rites of passage". I value life and absolute cannot stand people who don't or ruin their lives drinking and doing drugs. It just doesn't make sense to me!
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