By Christiana Corporon
As a native New Yorker, I remember seeing this quote engraved in the walls of the 9/11 museum at a rather young age. I could not fathom the depth of this quote as I hadn’t experienced anything traumatic enough that I would want to erase. That was until April 13, 2014.
On April 13, 2014, my cousin Reat was gunned down in the parking lot of a Jewish Community Center by a neo-nazi with the intention of killing as many Jews as possible. Along with Reat, he killed Reat’s grandfather and another woman, Terri LaManno. Reat was 14.
As the seven year anniversary of Reat’s death passes, my heart becomes heavier as it does each year. With Reat and I being just about two years apart, we finally began to get closer right before his death through family reunions, shared love for music, and of course, driving our parents insane.
With such tremendous loss comes a plethora of life lessons. I wish everyday I could have learned these lessons in a different way but while time does not heal all wounds, you learn to live with the pain. These are just some of the few lessons I’ve learned over the last seven years.
- Life is short. Cheesy, but true. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. Life is a gift. We cannot control the hardships thrown at us but we can control how to move forward. Choose to be the light amongst the darkness.
- Cherish every moment. It has been nine years since I last saw Reat. Seven since he died. The last seven years have been a blur. I can’t remember many things but the one thing I can remember crystal clear is his voice. These are the moments that matter. The ones that keep us going.
- Talk about it. For the longest time, I didn’t talk about Reat because I didn’t know how. Talking about him has been critical to keeping his memory alive.
The events of April 13 have made me far more aware of the gun violence epidemic that has plagued our country for far too long. Stricter gun control doesn’t mean taking away all guns. It means making them harder to obtain and keeping them out of the hands of those who should have access. The Biden administration has looked promising so far in addressing this epidemic that has taken the life of far too many. Read here for more.
While we cannot change the past, we can change the future. In the words of my cousin, “Live life to the fullest and never give up!”
