By Phoebe O’Meara, grade 9, Shrine Catholic High School, Royal Oak
‘Life is a Gift’ student contest winner: Prose Division Two (Grades 9-12)
In the Central African Republic, a song is sung when a woman is giving birth. It goes, “El-OH mama ti mbi aso mbi (“Ei-oh mother of mine, my belly hurts me”). Kanda be ti MO! (“Tie up your heart,” meaning “Tough it out”).” In Inuit, a newborn is welcomed into this world by receiving a handshake from everybody close to them. In many cultures, parties are thrown either before or after the birth of a baby to help prepare the mother for this new part of her life. All over the world, the birth of a baby is an event worth celebrating. As you can see, the belief that life is a gift is recognized internationally, by basically all people.
So there must be some logic behind this wide spread belief. Why does basically everybody agree that life is a gift and it should be treated that way? Why should you be so happy that right this very second, you are alive? The truth is, there is no one reason. There are tons of millions of possible answers to these questions, and no one answer is right for everybody. I personally believe that life is a gift because there is really no guarantee that I will still have my life tomorrow or next week or in two years. Life could be taken from me at any moment, without anything that can be done to prevent it. Every day, approximately 250,000 people die in the world, but so far, I haven’t been one of them. Is this not something we should be celebrating? You and I both are alive and breathing at this very moment, while tons upon tons of people aren’t. That is a pretty amazing gift.
One day, we will be part of the 250,000 people that will die that day, but that doesn’t mean we can then stop celebrating life. At this point, we will have even more to be thankful for. We have lived a life! We have touched so many people, whether we realize it or not! We lived to the fullest amount possible because we realized that life is a gift! We took our gift that we were given the day we were born and used it until it could be used no more!
As Bill Keane once said, “Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s call the present.” Life is that way by realizing now what so many people around the world have, LIFE IS A GIFT.
Phoebe was presented with an award certificate at the Life is a Gift Conference on Jan. 22, 2011. More Information: http://www.aodonline.org/LifeisaGift
