There's a family who lives downstairs adjacent to our own apartment. They're nice people; they moved to this apartment complex only a couple months ago and we've exchanged hellos. One day they brought us a 24-pack of grapefruit soda. They've always been kind.
It's just a middle aged Korean couple, and they lived with a mother of one of them. I haven't see her often, but she was very old. She needed a wheelchair to get around. There was a bed in their living room where she slept, and she laid their most of the time and never got out of the house.
One day, I was walking back home from school, and she was right outside the apartment by the parking lot, just sitting in her wheelchair. I saw her from far away, but she was so small and frail. She was alone, just basking in the sun.
As I got closer to her, I smiled at her and said hello, and she smiled back at me. And I walked past her and went inside. That was all. I remember thinking then that she must be a sweet old lady.
A couple days ago, I was leaving to the store with my mom. The man who lives in that apartment was outside packing some stuff. My mom stopped by to talk to him. I was already in the car, waiting for her with the ignition on.
She didn't come for the longest time and continued talking to him.
When she came, she told me, "He said the grandmother who lived with them passed away last week."
I only saw her once. But I think anybody who knows me knows that I'm not very sensible when it comes to things relating to death or nonexistence. I get emotional when people I barely knew die. So I was quite distraught that she was dead. I was even more upset that it had been a week and I hadn't even known that. I'm always reminded of this whenever someone near me dies. That time doesn't stop when your heart stops. That even when you're the center of everything that you've experienced, nothing really revolves around you. That you're really not important in the big scale of things.
Everything is going to go on. The election is still going to happen. Seniors will graduate this spring. Inventions are going to keep springing up. And you're not going to be there to see that. You're not going to be a part of any of it. And I can't imagine not existing in that world.
I always tend to rant about things like death. I'm not very good at explaining how I feel and think anyway, so I'll stop there, lest this become a modern, crappy version of Hamlet's soliloquy.
Anyway.
I got a 97/100 on my sociology exam from earlier this week. It was the highest grade in the class, but I was really upset about one of the questions that I missed because I knew the answer but I bubbled in the wrong letter. It was a stupid mistake but I don't understand how I overlooked that when I checked my answers twice? I guess I wasn't paying enough attention. Maybe I was tired by the end of 80 questions. I hate that lady.