Narrative Essay: Exploring a Lesson Learned the Hard Way in Life

This narrative essay recounts a personal experience of loss and the challenging journey of learning to cope with grief. The author vividly describes the close bond with a friend, the tragic accident that led to her friend's death, and the subsequent struggle with grief, denial, and anxiety. The essay detail...Read More

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Narrative
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A lesson I learned the hard way
Introduction
The joy that comes when you are surrounded by friends and relatives is tremendous.
Friends and relatives not only give pleasure but advice one to live in dignity and a balanced life
(Farber, 54). However, the pain of losing one of them is too much. Learning how to forget the
last moments you had together is difficult. Despite parents and religious leader’s advice, learning
to cope up with life is not easy. In this narrative essay, it is going to elaborate on the lesson I
learned the hard way to adapt to new surrounding without the beloved one.
Even though Janet was not my blood sister I considered her as one, we shared a lot of
things including academic materials, life stories and played together. We were emotionally
attached to everything we did. One day as Janet’s seventeenth birthday was approaching; we
agreed that I would welcome her to our home place so that we can arrange how to carry out the
birthday party. She arrived at precisely two in the afternoon. We shared a lot of stories and how
to make the birthday as joyous as never was in the past. After finishing the arrangement, we
shared drinks while cracking jokes on how school sessions were because at that time it was the
holiday period. Around five in the evening, it was time for Janet to go back home and wait for
her seventeenth birthday which was in three days’ time (Schwarzer,66). I accompanied her to the
bus station, hugged her and stared at their way their van which was playing a soft sound music to
passengers. No sooner had I turned to go back home than I had the hooting of vehicles and brake
scratches on my back. It attracted my attention so much that I could not go without looking back.
It was unimaginable; a lorry had ramped into in public service vehicle, to make the matter worse,
it was the vehicle that Janet had bordered to head back to their home. I felt confused preparing

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for the worst but hoping for the best of my friend Janet (Rohban, Sara, and Stefano Campaner,
520).
When it reached the next day, all roads were headed to the district hospital to know the
condition of the patients. I was one of them. I could not control my tears when I heard many
people screaming around the ward area. People were not allowed to get into the ward. After
some time, I got to know that my closest friend had passed away. Several questions ran down in
my mind. Why did it happen to Janet? How is it going to be without my best friend? For several
days I could neither eat nor sleep. The memories of Janet when she was reminding me of the
benefits of hard work in school was all over my mind put aside the jokes we cracked the other
day when she was at our place. Several months passed but I could not let it go, I blamed
everybody for the situation (Persike, Malte, and Inge Seiffge-Krenke, 45). At one point I
remember my parents advised me that I could not leave that way, it was time to let the case go,
however, their efforts fell into deaf ears. After several days of advice from other friends and
relatives, my mother took me to religious leaders in the church. At this point, my body was
growing thinner and thinner due to stress and anxiety (Nouwen, 87). I felt I could commit suicide
to follow my friend in her permanent residence.
After spending some time with religious groups, I started recovering slowly. I could
smile and talk. Consequently, when the memories were back, my tears could roll down
uncontrollably. It was tough to learn to let go and focus ahead. It took me a year to say enough is
enough despite tears and regrets (Chang, Yun‐chien, et al, 150). It was the hardest lesson in life
to learn that one can meet any side of life and you should be prepared to take any side of the
coin. I teamed up with several religious leaders and other agencies to campaign on how to cope

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up with the stress of losing the beloved one. I found that many people were suffering from the
same disease of not accepting the loss. However, it is destructive to continue holding the pain.
In conclusion, people are faced with challenging matters in life especially loss of a close
friend or relative. Many people do not accept the loss; they continue living in denial. My
situation above taught me how to cope up with pain. One should take the challenge as good
things may be coming in future.

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Work cited
Chang, Yun‐chien, et al. "Pain and Suffering Damages in Wrongful Death Cases: An Empirical
Study." Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 12.1 (2015): 128-160.
Farber, Ruth S. "Widowhood: Integrating loss and love." Psychotherapy and the widowed
patient. Psychology Press, 2014. 49-58.
Nouwen, Henri JM. Life of the Beloved. Hachette UK, 2016.
Persike, Malte, and Inge Seiffge-Krenke. "Stress with parents and peers: How adolescents from
18 nations cope with relationship stress." Anxiety, Stress, & Coping 29.1 (2016): 38-59.
Rohban, Sara, and Stefano Campaner. "Myc induced replicative stress response: How to cope
with it and exploit it." Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Gene Regulatory
Mechanisms 1849.5 (2015): 517-524.
Schwarzer, Ralf. Self-efficacy: Thought control of action. Taylor & Francis, 2014.