Facing Terminal Illness:
Facing terminal illness can break or unite a family. And sometimes both. When a person is terminally ill, all their loved ones gather to help his/her passing as cheerful as possible. Although that is kind of ironic since death or the process of dying is a very depressing affair. Our guest speaker, Beth Bernett, shared with us her experience of how her husband was diagnosed with cancer and how her family had to unite so they could all be strong. They tried their best so her husband, Erik, would never think about death. In My Brother, the author goes through the grueling process of watching her brother slowly die after he was tested HIV positive. At one point in the book the author, Jamaica, says to be tired “seeing him like this. I wish he would just die already.” Seeing her brother terminally ill made her feel sorry for him and wished he would just die instead of suffer day by day. This shows how she changed due to the fact that she was faced with the possibility that her brother might be dying because I am sure that she would never have wished that someone in her family would just die.
Being Sick:
I have personally never been sick. Or at least never been sick enough to complain about it. However, I used to have the occasional headache but that was primarily due to me getting around 3-4 hours of sleep every night. I compensated for my sleep deprivation by drinking a lot of caffeine. This started when I was 13 years old so even a moderate amount of caffeine (moderate to adults) was probably very unhealthy for me. Like with every other drug, as you use it more and more often, you also need to increase the quantity so it will give you the same kick that you would have gotten when you first started using it. My case was no different from all other drug addicts. As my parents started to notice my increase in caffeine consumption, they started to “cut me off”. After suffering from withdrawal for a few days, I had decided that I must find alternatives to my caffeine addiction so I decided to sleep more and devote less time to my computer screen. When people are sick, they do things that they would not otherwise think of doing. Same goes for people who are terminally sick. I think that is why some people consider cancer a gift. They realize what they could have done if they weren’t sick. Same way I realized if I wasn’t addicted to caffeine and computers, I would be much more successful in school and in other social practices.
