The Days Go On

One day,

You're a college student with not a worry in the world. New people, new experiences, and a new found excitement for the life that awaits you.

The next day,

The person you leaned on when the world felt like it was crumbling, is diagnosed with cancer. A diagnosis that you have seen affect the lives of so many, but you never expect to affect yours.

503 days,

Filled with immense love, memories, and laughter. Paired with tears, heartache, and grief that ends with what you feared most. The loss of the most important person in your life.

Then the days begin to blend together. Each day becomes a battle. You are mourning the loss of a person who taught you how to live. While mourning the loss of what could have been. The extra days, the extra time, the extra memories. Each day goes by, and you can not imagine when the days will become good again.

And then one day,

You begin to live in honor of the person who lived everyday with meaning. You laugh again, you smile again, and you learn the capacity of your strength and resilience. You lean on the family and friends that surround you.

Each day is still hard. Each day is still different. But the bad days come with great ones too.

The days go on.

— Ella Malanga