Everything Happens for a Reason

Six years ago, on August 14, 2001, when I was fifteen and a sophomore in high school, my eighteen year old brother died in a single car accident. We still don’t know to this day how it happened. He was the most fun loving, free spirited person I have ever known. He had this way about him that made everyone he was around feel so comfortable and happy that consequently made everyone think the world of him.

When he died, I had the hardest time adjusting to the fact that such a warm hearted guy was taken at such an early age. This was a period of soul searching that left me with many unanswered questions. Why him, he still had so much living left to do? It wasn’t until a dream my mom had and about a month later that made me realize things do happen for a reason.

While I’m not the most religious person, I do believe that there is a heaven and a hell. If I didn’t, I honestly don’t think that I would have been able to deal with my brother’s death, not knowing where he was…thinking that he was just…gone. The thought of him in heaven brought a sort of peace to my mind. One afternoon about two weeks after my brother’s death, my mom told me about a dream she had the night before. In her dream, my brother, Tyson, was standing at the foot of her bed while she slept and he woke her to tell her to bring him a flag. That’s all he had said, “bring him a flag.” Like he had asked, my mom took a flag to his grave. I really hadn’t thought too much of it until not even a month after his death, September 11th happened. The co-occurrence of these two events together are what shaped my belief.

My theory behind my brother’s short life is that he was needed. He was needed up in heaven to welcome all the people that had been victims of such an outrageous monstrosity. He was taken to be the smiling, warm hearted person he was to help these people adjust to their new “home”.

While this all could sound a little fairy-tale-ish, it has shaped my way of living entirely. Anything I do, good or bad, I think happens for a reason. Whether it’s to teach me something, make me stronger in some way, or whatever else it may do, I believe that everything happens for a reason.