The sidewalk that held diamonds
I was 15 years old. I was in my room, playing one of my favorite games on Xbox. I was so entranced in this game that I didn’t quite notice the panicking voice that started coming out of my parent’s room. I just kept on playing thinking it was a work related issue. Then suddenly in the deep space of silence that was created in my mind by the rapture of the game, I heard the screaming voice of my mother that was at a pitch so high that it took me out of the game’s entrancement, and I just stood still. The screaming sound was one filled with pain, sadness and disappointment, all of those emotions projected in one sound. I stood still, with the remote still in my hands but not playing anymore, I was gathering up my thoughts. Then I stood up and started walking trough the straight corridor to my parent’s room. The closer I got the louder my mother’s cry was, and then I could see her with her hands cupped around her face crying. In that instant of time a cutting pain hit my heart and I knew without a doubt in my mind the reason why my mother was crying. I ran towards her and wrapped my arms around her. As I stood there hugging my mother every emotion that was projected by my mother’s scream rushed in to me. It was an uncontrollable wave hitting me and then surrounding me with the infinite matter of water which sole purpose was to drown me.
A few days have gone by and here I was now standing in a graveyard surrounded by my family everyone dressed in dark colors. In front of me was a white coffin in a rectangle hole in the sand that held my grandfather. As I stood there I saw the sadness that came from the loss of my grandfather in my family’s eyes. I wondered what impact my grandfather made in our lives that made us feel this way now that he is gone. It was then that I remembered one thing that my grandfather said to me once “…everyone has a purpose in life, and creating a family is already a great accomplishment”. I don’t remember the whole sentence but that was the part that stuck to me, and I never quite understood what he meant by that. He said it to me on an ordinary Sunday, when we were sitting on his porch. My grandfather never spoke much and when he did, I never quite understood what he was saying he was mostly mumbling. That is why I remembered back to that specific sentence, because it was one of the few times that he spoke to me. He was a man that spoke very little, but always showed his love to his family with his actions. My grandfather immigrated to a land where he started with nothing. Throughout his life he started several businesses, a lot of them that were not successful. In the end though he had enough assets to provide for the whole family. He was an exemplary man that loved his family unconditionally. It was this love for family that he instilled in us all. If I contrast his life to that sentence, I think what he meant is that the important thing in life is to make a difference. Not to try to change the whole entire world, but make a positive impact on the little bit around you. When I look at my grandfather’s life he never became a world leader or a great businessman, he was simple. But just by him living his life in a loving peaceful manner he had a great impact on our lives and made us want to strive to be better. That was his purpose in life, and by that sentence he wanted the same for me. As I analyzed all of these thoughts, I looked at my family again, but this time I did not see the sadness but I saw all of my grandfather’s achievements in life. It was then that I felt the waves slowly pass and the water starting to drain and I could see the rising sun at the horizon.
I lifted my head, started walking and I felt for the first time in my life that just like my grandfather I too had a purpose to fulfill. Finally when I stood outside the graveyard in the glistening sun it gave diamonds to the sidewalk showing me which way to walk.