Life as we know it

I've had some really interesting experiences lately concerning well life in general, in such different examples...

1. My grandma died, as previously mentioned, at an older age and of poor health and as a family we had a pretty general consensus that even though it's hard and different to not have her around anymore it was her time and she's much happier now. Well about 2 weeks ago my uncle Paul died at age 63. He'd had a heart attack in his 40's but experienced another one in Lake Havasui that very weekend. My uncle Paul was a very energetic, fun, "hip" guy who was still considered really young and many people would have thought that he went before his time nevertheless it happened and he too is now in a much better place.

2. I attended my stake conference in Cedar that same Sunday that my uncle Paul died(not yet knowing he had passed away), where I was surprised to find out that my stake presidency was being released. This particular stake presidency had been with me for the past 3 years that I've been in Cedar and to be quite honest I have loved them! well about a year ago President Johnson was MIA at stake conference morning session when the family announced that he was in the hospital for a heart attack event (I believe) or some sort of medical problem that landed him in the hospital where they were able to discover that he had cancer. He's been undergoing treatments all this time and honestly haven't heard much as to where he's in remission or where his current status is but it was interesting to me as we were sitting in stake conference and the visiting general authority said: "No righteous man is called before his time. I feel strongly that I need to tell you all that president Johnson is going to be okay, that now is not his time and that he has other jobs and duties he has yet to do on this Earth, I don't know what they are but he is going to be okay."

3. A few days prior to this stake conference Candice was in town visiting and with it being the last week of basketball at the school we attended the game Thursday night. A bunch of us hung out after getting food and laughing like normal, catching up and hanging out with Candice when we all ended back at my house. Time had flown by and before we knew it, it was about 11:30pm and with classes the next morning people started to leave. Suzie, Brook, and Kort all needing to get home with Suz being the only driver. She was insistent that she was not taking Kort home but would take brookie home. So long story short Candice, Mindy, Kort, and myself ended up in Mindy's car to take Kort home. I was driving since Mind already had her glasses on and for some reason found myself taking a random route to take him home, we were just about to his turn when up ahead we see a 4 Runner off to the side of the road, as we approached you could see someone lying on the ground and a man who started to flag us over as we passed. Not quite sure what could be going on I was a little nervous so I sent the man of the vehicle over to check it out, and when Kort didn't come back I flipped around and we got out. We ran over to see a guy who had passed out on the side of the road, was lying in shorts (it was freezing outside), not quite sure how long he had been there. We got car blankets going and covered him up as Candice and I kicked into nurse mode. Ben, the one who had flagged us down already had 911 on the phone and the kid on the ground, Lance was responsive enough to tell us he had a medical bracelet. Candice called the mom and we tried to get him warm and comfort him while he in and out of sentences told us he has a rare heart condition and they aren't quite sure what's wrong with him other than his heart can and will stop at any given moment. Crazy! This poor kid was 21 years old and had his most recent episode before this one less than a week before. He was such a sweetheart about the whole thing though and kept saying thank you over and over again. The police and ambulance showed up and before we knew it he was hooked up to an EKG, on the stretcher, and on his way to the hospital. It was such an amazing experience and Candice and I were on an adrenaline rush. We took Kort home and went home ourselves and went to bed. The following night Candice, who had called his mom, got a text that she forwarded to us saying: Thanks again for helping Lance last night. Tell whoever it was that found him thank you too. You literally saved his life!

4. I went to dinner with some friend the other night and as we were sitting at Costa Vida and as the subject of graduation got brought up my friend Matt made a great point: when people talking about being so excited to be done with school and graduated(like me and my friends) that they just can't wait to get out there what's really THAT bad about college besides the homework?? I thought it was such a great question because I am one of those people whose been extremely looking forward to graduation and I was so surprised when Matty said that cause it was just what I needed to hear, soak up these last few months of this comfort zone that I have in a place I call 2nd home with people I love like family before life as I know it becomes real world and have to grow up a little.

5. Lastly, and probably the least detailed experience, due to privacy rules, I had the opportunity to perform CPR on a patient last week at clinicals. Rare opportunity that left me feeling a mixture of emotions mostly because as a student you're lucky to get to see a code take place let alone be the one that one doing chest compressions and watching them up close and personal try to revive someone by shocking their body. WAY COOL!! but can't say much other than that and my patient didn't survive. Although, I didn't really think about it until I called my family that night to tell them my exciting experience when my sister said "what was that like?" "oh man Ash it's such a rush.." " no what did it feel like to walk out of the room knowing you didn't save them?" "Oh.... you mean that feeling."
We was health care workers can't allow ourselves to get caught up in feeling for every person we can't save or that die under our watch because in the end, ya can't beat God. If it's that persons time it's their time and no medicine we give will change that.

Basically, all these experiences have got me thinking about lots of things lately and I've once again been reminded of some very important lessons I seem to have forgotten: that everything in life happens for a reason, there truly are no such things as coincidences! and more importantly sometimes is that people come into our lives for a reason-to teach us, to help us, or to have us help them in order for us to learn something in return. Many time these people don't stay in our lives for long periods of time but could only talk to us in a store, a class, or smile at us on the street saying all the right things we needed to hear. Life is about timing and timing truly is everything just like the song says : ) The right or wrong time can make the biggest difference in someones life, and that when it comes to death it may be hard to get over but realizing that no righteous person is taken before their time can be the most comforting thing to remember. And there is no such thing as life as we know it, because life as we know it can change at any second for the better or worse, but in the end change is a good thing and we have to embrace it or else we're stuck being bitter instead of truly living. So live a little, love a lot, and forgive, and take advantage of opportunities presented because they truly are occurring for a reason : )