One day while I was finishing up my workout she ran up to me. “ I know you,” she said with this huge grin on her face. “ You go to my school. I came to one of your basketball games you know. I wish I could be as good as you,” she continued to tell me.
Taken by surprise I asked her what her name was. “ Torri” she said. Then she sprinted out the front door, her mom was outside in the car waiting for her.
My doctor looked at me and said,” You know why shes always here right?”
Looking at him I shook my head no. “ She has Leukemia. Don’t tell her, but the doctors said she doesn’t have much time left.”
From that day on I became inspired, this little girl was fighting for something so much more than a knee injury; she was fighting for her own life.
As winter break approached I watched Torri improve so much. She would make me watch her walk on her own, and she used to always tell me that she was going to beat this cancer that consumed her. She would laugh and tell me how she wished she could have real hair,or how she liked my softball bracelet and how she wanted one just like mine. But her biggest wish was just to be alive on Christmas.
December 22, 2010, every time I think about this date my heart breaks. I came into therapy just to see Torri one more time before Christmas, I had also made her a bracelet, just like mine. I looked around and didn’t see her. I walked over to the doctor and asked him if he could give the bracelet to her. He looked up at me and shook his head. “ Torri had became very sick last night and passed away early this morning.” He lowered his head after this comment.
I was instantly in shock all I could think about was her family and how it was only a few days before Christmas. “they go fast, and young men loose their lives in strange and unimaginable ways” (Meinke 144). My mind raced as I began to recall how just the day before she was jumping up and down and kicking a soccer ball across the carpeted floor of the office. Her smile seemed to be so healthy, she was on the fast track to recovery. This little girl had taught me so much and made me realize that I need to be thankful that I am healthy, I believe that meeting this little girl was fate.
I decided to relate my experience to the poem “Advice To My Son” because it talks about how you never know how an event may turn out and any day could be your last one. “But at the same time, plan long range (for they go slow:if you survive)” (Meinke 144). The poem also talks about how you should plan ahead and be ready for the future no matter what the circumstances are. The father in the poem told his son to live his life to the fullest, because one day everything could disappear and he could be left with nothing. My experience relates to this poem because Torri never gave up and was always planning for tomorrow even though she knew that tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed. Just like the father in the poem had told his son.
This experience has taught me that anything could happen. We were put on this earth to live the life we were given, so we might as well live it to the fullest.
