Don't Tell Me Everything Is Going To Be Fine

It has been a strange couple of days.

I don’t know how much I'm allowed to say, or even if I'm allowed to talk about this. So I'll just leave it at the following; on Thursday my safety was completely threatened and I, along with all of the other people around me, were put at risk at work. This is something that you know happens, you hear about happening, but you never think that it is going to happen to you. Until it does.

But, everything is going to be fine they said.

Then, just a few days later, the news of Kobe Bryant's death breaks the internet. Someone who we all have viewed as indestructible is all of the sudden ripped from the earth and gone. Getting into that helicopter that day they probably thought that everything was going to be fine. Until it wasn’t.

This one hit me hard, like a brick wall. I didn't even know Kobe Bryant. I probably couldn’t even tell you any of his stats. But it was never about basketball for me. It was never about basketball for a lot of us.

It has always been about who he was as a person, a father, a husband, an idol, a visionary. It is about that video of him and his daughter that went viral just a few weeks ago. They were sitting at a basketball game and Kobe was explaining to her how to improve. It's about every video I've ever seen of his daughters running to his embrace after a game. Every picture I've ever seen of his family. It was about every time I'm in the kitchen at work and one of my male coworkers shoots something into the trash bin from across the room and yells "Kobe!" It is about how, in those last moments, we all know that Kobe did everything in his power to make Gigi feel comfortable and okay.

I'm not one for giving advice, since I'm as guilty as the rest of us complaining about having to wake up and go to work everyday. Waking up every day is a blessing. Having the opportunity to go into work everyday is a blessing. Getting to work safely is also a blessing.

Maybe things are going to be fine. But we should never just assume that it is going to be fine. We shouldn't assume we are going to get another week on earth or even another hour. For being as tough as it is, life is pretty damn fragile and we should live out every moment as if we don't know what could happen next. 

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