April Calderwood

Prologue

 

Sometimes you can’t stop someone you love from doing something stupid that will ruin their life forever. There’s nothing you can do but sit and watch in utter horror as their whole life passes right before your eyes.

 

That’s what happened to my sister, Rush, who let her bad thoughts about something or someone get the better of her until those thoughts ruled her life. There was nothing I could do but sit and watch, except of course beg and plead, but alas words meant nothing to her. I knew that the only way to stop her was to force her to do something unwillingly. But I also knew that isn’t the way.

 

We must learn that our loved ones must make their own choices. No matter where it leads them, whether it leads them to a bright future or a lost, lonely life—or even to torture and death.

 

We can only give advice and just hope that they listen to us. If not, then they must suffer the consequences on their own. But there is hope. There is always hope. Especially in the most lonely, treacherous courses of our journey. There must be hope, or our life would not exist on this beautiful, complex planet.

 

Some say they are as good as dead once they make a bad decision, but I don’t believe that to be true.  

 

I’ve seen Rush walk off with a look of hope on her face, even though I had already seen her future before my eyes. She could not have known. I knew she must find out for herself if she wasn’t willing to listen to me.

 

And as I watched Rush walk off from me that terrible night, I truly feared for her. But part of my heart took flight when she left me too, followed her wherever she went, to help her through her tough trials in life. And in return, part of her stayed strong in me, helping me along the way.

 

Nevertheless I hoped against hope that she would come home to us again. Although perhaps she lost that chance with her decision, a family can always hope for the best.

 

If we cannot be there for each other, we must at least hope for each other. Love does not mean that you stop loving someone just because they have changed, just because they made the wrong decision. Love goes on and on and on. And no matter what the future holds for us, we must keep going strong with determination, and hope for the best. We can’t let our minds wander in the past. But we must stand together strong, and hope for a brighter future.

 

And although her future did not look friendly in the least, that hope was always there.

 

It was hard to let go of Rush when she made the biggest decision of her life, a decision that would affect us all later on. But we must find our own paths and our own meanings in life.

 

For Rush, that journey meant many years of torture and distress. But perhaps it was all worth something. Perhaps she would find the true meaning of herself and how she fit in with life. Perhaps she would have her…

 

Lessons Learned.