This is for the Challenge: Your Life is Awesome! Enjoy!

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Everyone goes through a certain stage. The stage where we take a step back from our busy lives and look at we have. Some people don't go through this stage until later on in their lives. I, on the other hand, have gone through this stage when I was only eighteen.

About a year ago, my father, whom I love and adore, was diagnosed with cancer: Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It is one of the most curable cancers, so we were very lucky. However, my dad was in stage four, which is the most severe stage. He had to go through many bouts of chemotherapy.

I was in my first year of college, nearly three hours away, so I couldn't be with him when he needed me most. I came home on the weekends for the first month, but then, my parents didn't want me coming home so often, they wanted me to stay and study. So, I was only able to visit during the holidays, and it killed me a little bit every time I had to leave home to go back to college where I felt helpless to do anything.

Then, I received a phone call from my mother telling me my grandmother had had a severe heart attack. Again, I wasn't able to just drop everything to come home and be with her and my family. All I could do was hope and pray.

Towards the Christmas season, my little brother, who is only 8, got sick from the swine flu. It hurt so badly, knowing I, as his big sister, couldn't be there to hold his hand through the nauseating pain he must have felt. He was a little trooper, though, calling me with any new updates.

I have to thank my wonderful, caring friends for being with me through the tears and the many sessions where I just broke down and cried. They kept my mind off of things, making me laugh when it felt impossible to do so. They were jewels among gems.

Complete strangers would tell me they were praying for my family when they found out, prayer chains were started in numerous churches throughout the state, and some were even made outside of the state, by people we had only met once. Knowing that so many people cared, all those cards and phone calls, meant so much to me and my family.

So, how does all this pain and anguish make my life awesome? It makes my life awesome because I now cherish every moment of my life as though it were my last. I have grown in faith and in life. People are given second chances for a reason.

My life is awesome because I am very much alive and I can help people. I can teach people that there is more to life than material objects, and that we should slow down in life, to stop and smell the roses, to take in that awe inspiring horizon, to eat that extra piece of cake without feeling any regret.

My life is awesome because I am blessed with numerous people who love me, and I have everything I could ever need right here with me.