October 20, 2018

The morning of October 20, 2018 I woke up with a feeling of rejuvenation and readiness for the joy I was about to experience during my day. It was a Saturday I had been looking forward to for awhile. I was going to go to the nursing home I volunteer at for a Halloween celebration. Yes, a 14 year old girl like me enjoyed spending her Saturdays with old people at a nursing home. I practically was skipping into the building once I had arrived, so excited to just spread love and joy to all the cute old folks. But that passion for my day was crushed as soon as I reached the first room of the third floor.

Let me take you back to the beginning of the Summer of 2018 when I started volunteering at the nursing home. I had met a lovely old lady named Rita who had an incredible passion for dance. She was so passionate that it could light up the whole room. I dance competitively and take classes each week and she found such fascination in my desires for dance and the classes that I took. I would look forward to every Thursday during that Summer to see sweet Rita and she looked forward to seeing me. I told her about my solo I was performing for competitive dance and she gleamed when I told her about it. She wanted to come see me perform.

It made me want to laugh and skip and jump up and down when Rita would express to me how much she genuinely cared for me. I knew that she had to see me perform because I wanted to bring joy to her like she would bring joy to me. So, I planned to perform my solo for her once the choreography was finished. Well, that Saturday when I reached the first room on the third floor, no one was there. I returned back to the first floor eager to see one of my most favorite people, hoping that Rita would be on the first floor. It was then that I found out that Rita had passed away the week before.

That Saturday was not so passionate of a Saturday any longer without Rita. The whole building lacked passion. Even if others couldn't feel it, I could. I lacked passion; for life, for dance, for people. I never got to perform my solo for Rita. I never got to properly say goodbye to the wonderful, inspiring lady that has impacted my life and my dance career greatly. I returned to the first door on the third floor and gazed into her room as if she was still lying on her bed like the elegant woman that she was. As a flood of tears streamed down my face, I whispered, "I never got to dance for you." I left the building beaming a little less and lacking the passion I had for the day when I first arrived at the nursing home. I felt a hole in my heart. It could not be replaced; it was just there.

As I go about my life today, I know how short something can last. I know that tomorrow is never guaranteed and I know that God calls us all to soak up each and every moment for every moment really only lasts once. You truly never know how much you love something until it is gone. Rita is gone. So is her lovely presence. But, her passion for this life and for dance and for the people surrounding her will never leave this world and the people that she has impacted.

I encourage you to think of a Rita in your life. Someone that makes you feel PASSION and HOPE and JOY for life. Thank that person or those people that make you feel that way because you never know the next time you will see them.