Bike accident experience
Almost three years ago, I was driving back home from the gym with my roommate, and as we were turning into the avenue where our apartment complex was, there was a huge traffic jam, with police cars and fire trucks nearby; it was clear that there was a bad Bike accident. As we drove into our complex, my roommate pointed out that it was somebody in a blue bike and they weren’t moving. I immediately and nervously responded, “Brian’s bike is blue.”
A few hours later, it was confirmed to me that my friend Brian was the one in that Bike accident. Apparently he was hit by a car and flew through the air and landed on his head; he was not wearing his helmet. He was still alive, but he was in a coma, and unfortunately, Brian would never wake up from that coma. His family would have to make the decision to let Brian go. That must have been one of the most painful decisions they would ever have to make.
At Brian’s funeral service, his family was of high spirits, and that was incredible to me. I’m sure their passion for their religious beliefs and the love they shared as a family was allowing them to be okay with dealing with this tragedy, and I loved how they never said anything of how careless Brian was for not wearing his helmet when he got in the bike accident that day – they never even mentioned how careless Brian was for riding a bike at all! All they could talk about was that Brian was an example of enjoying life and that we should all learn from him and enjoy our own lives, because all our lives are too short.
Brian’s family made me realize that day that we cannot control what happens in this life: A bike accident can happen, or an airplane accident, a car accident, cancer, life. But, we cannot let the fear of these things happening prevent us from enjoying our own lives. If you love to ride, ride. If you love to fly, fly. If you love to jump off a plane, jump off the plane, because this life is a playground and the greatest gift we can give to this world, to our family, and to our friends is our gift of love – living this life with our entire heart and soul. That is how we free the world, simply by living it out of love, not out of fear.