Day 6

Sorry about the delay in getting these posts up. I forgot/was too busy to do them the last couple of days, what with work, finals, and baby preparation.

But apologies are for stupid people, so I take it back, I'm not sorry about the delay. To make up for it (my not apologizing?), I'm going to do each of the 3 days that I missed, ALL IN A ROW.

Hopefully I actually get it up today, or this is going to turn into a vicious cycle of me not finishing and having to add more days, which in turn prevents me from finishing. It's like racism in that way, I guess.

Anywho, onto Day 6!

What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?

Diamonds. Next question.

Day 7

Just kidding. Although technically speaking, diamonds are indeed the hardest things I've ever experienced. Initially, I thought it would have to be what I'm going through now, what with waiting to find out if I'm getting into a medical school, or if I'm going to be stuck in Utah with nothing to do for the next year, and how to provide for a baby if Jes doesn't work etc. The mental stress of that has been pretty killer, and I'm basically going to have to sit here and make plans that I really don't want to use until I found out one way or the other.

I also realized that I'll probably have to start turning in applications for the Fall 2014 class before I know if I get in off the wait list at USF. Blerg. That's not a pleasant prospect.

That said, it's really not the hardest thing I've experienced (diamonds!). That was back when I was in high school.

And no, this isn't another Crohn's story, so if you're worried about detailed descriptions of Crohn's-poo, you can stick around (although I recommend skipping Day 12, "Describe a Typical Day in Your Life", because that's going to have a crap-ton of poo descriptions).

Mom and Dad always restricted the amount of time Andrew and I spent playing video games, be they on the computer or some console or another. Well, they tried anyways, and usually they were quite successful. We did cheat quite a bit, often resetting the egg timer on the oven to give us a few more minutes (although, it did legitimately get stuck a few times, so we weren't always lying) of play. The amount of time we got to play was directly proportional to the amount of time we played piano (we also got several hours for each completed merit badge, so there was incentive to get our Eagle Scout awards right there).

Almost every Friday night, though, Mom and Dad would go out on a date, and it was basically a free pass to play as much as we wanted. Not that we were supposed to, mind you, but I'm pretty sure they knew what we were doing. There was one particular Friday where Mom and Dad were headed out a bit farther than they usually went, which meant that I got to play even more than I usually did. I can remember how it felt playing those games, although I don't remember what I was playing specifically. It was lots of fun.

There came a point, however, where I felt like I'd been playing a little too long. I checked the clock, and it was late. Far later than they'd ever been home. I actually stopped playing, because I started getting a little worried. I don't remember why I didn't call their cell phones, but I didn't, I just sat on the couch and waited for them to call. Maybe they'd decided to stay the night down in L.A., or maybe they'd had to wait a while to get seated, or something, but honestly, it just didn't feel right.

Mom called at some point, I think it was around 10:30 or 11 and told me that they'd been hit by someone on the freeway and had rolled over multiple times. They were air-lifting Dad to some hospital, it might've been Cedar-Sinai, but it looked like everything was going to be fine. Initially it was a hit-and-run, but he pulled over a mile or two down the road. He was 20, drunk, and stoned.

When they got to the hospital, it turned out Dad's neck had broken in 4 places, and scraped off a lot of the skin on the right side of his face. It was basically a miracle he hadn't been paralyzed, among many other things as he sat in the helicopter. Mom had gotten off with essentially a seat belt bruise, physically at least. We've never really talked about how psychologically terrifying that must've been, but I imagine it was pretty horrible.

Sitting at home was pretty awful. I remember going to bed that night, and sleeping surprisingly well. I woke up early, but I don't remember tossing or turning. I remember getting a call from the Stake President giving me a little bit of an update on how Dad was doing, and he was pretty grim. Dad was in bad shape.

Seeing Dad when he got home was terrible. He was going to be fine, at least as fine as you could expect. But those first few days, it was hard to see. Not because he was terrifying to look at, but it was a reminder about how incredibly awful things can happen to amazing people. No reason, no purpose, it's just because that's the way life is.

It's been a good reminder to me throughout my life, and has also helped me form my views on God. I don't think He has His hand in every aspect of life, I don't think He controls every minute detail of our existence, and not everything that happens is in accord with His "divine will". Not that I don't believe He could if He wanted to (I'm not interested in making assumptions about what God can and can not do), but I think the random acts of living, of existing in this world where everyone has the freedom to choose to do as much good, evil, or anything in between as they want, and our response to those stimuli make up a very large part of God's plan. I can't imagine God wanted Dad's neck to get broken any more than He wants people to war, or sickness, or any of the bad things people so often use to disprove the idea of a loving God. Nor do I think it was part of a grand plan. It just happened. What we choose to do with that knowledge can reinforce our belief in God, weaken our belief in God, or whatever we choose.

I didn't mean to wax philosophical there, or try to convince you of my beliefs or anything, but yeah.

That was probably the hardest thing I've ever experienced. And honestly, most of the hard stuff, I didn't even experience personally. But, there it is.

I'm going to be writing Day 7 and Day 8 today as well, so stay tuned!

Words: 1,191 (yay I'm making up for my shorter posts!)