Flowers for the Living by Julianne

Flowers for the Living by Julianne - November 2013 Scholarship Essay

It was finally summer. I had been waiting for it since the first day of my sophomore year and it was here at last. I kept thinking of all the exciting things my family and I would do. Playing soccer, biking to the grocery store to get ice cream, and trying to turn my pasty white stomach into a tan one. Ah, how I love summer. On the last day of school, my friend and I ran over to the history classroom to get our tests back. World history had been challenging not because of the content, but because of the teacher. The teacher was my ex-best friends' mom and she had been my Kindergarten teacher. She was teaching World History because the school didn't have the money to hire anyone else. None of us sophomores liked that class. Every class period was full of complaints and wines. "Why must we do this homework? Why must we watch this movie? This is so hard." Sometimes, Mrs. Helms would get sick of all the complaints and we could tell. She would give a heavy sigh and walk back to her desk. One student was particularly difficult to deal with. He would make fun of everything she said and it didn't help that Mrs. Helms was a bit overweight. There were many jokes about her physical appearance. At times, I would feel guilty about laughing at these jokes. But I didn't say anything.
After a week of lazing about, my mom got a phone call from the school. She came outside and told me, "Julianne, Mrs. Helms is really sick. She has been for the last half a year." I replied, "Really sick? How sick? Sick with what?" I was really concerned. She was only in her forty's. She shouldn't be really sick. It turned out that she had been fighting melanoma. Cancer.

Despite all of our prayers for a miracle, she died. Gone. Left. Never to be seen again. My mom and I went over to the Helms house right before she passed and I saw my friend sobbing. She was inconsolable. Another one of her friends was holding her as she jerked out tears.
In the months that passed, I had a lot of questions. Some that I still have no clue as to what the answers are. For instance, why didn't God let her live? Also, what is the point of living if all we do is die in the end?

Through this questioning time in my life, I learned the lesson well. I had no clue that Mrs. Helms was fighting cancer. If I had known, I would have treated her with more respect and kindness. I wouldn't have laughed at the stupid jokes. I would have sent her flowers while she was alive to enjoy them. That summer was a sad one, full of questions. But that summer I learned a very valuable lesson. Treat everyone with a bit of extra kindness for you never know what they may be going through.