We see this every day. Someone passes away and everyone that knew that person, even if it was only a little bit, has nothing but nice things to say about them. Even if that person had a somewhat villainous persona, people would be slow to say anything vilifying about them and instead find something nice to say about them. Which brings me to my point; we can all see the good in others. For a lot of people, it’s easier to see the good in them than the bad, because it hands down outshines the bad and is the first thing you see. For the others, it may take you a while, but eventually you see a little good in them also. So why do we as a society love to wait until that person is gone to tell them all of this good stuff about them? Why do we wait to tell them our lives are better because of them being in it? Or how much we do care about and love them?

I lost a friend yesterday. We weren’t extremely close; in fact, I had only recently reconnected with her. Before that, we hadn’t talked really since graduation. But as the news of her passing began to break and spread yesterday afternoon, I found myself feeling blindsided and shocked. I can still hear her voice, see the smile on her face from the last time we talked, and now I will never hear or see that again. There’s so much I would’ve liked to tell her, and now I’ll never have that chance. A million words, all left unsaid.

I usually never post anything like this anywhere online, especially on social media. I don’t like to share my grief with others; I imagine that they won’t care, or will be annoyed by it, or worst of all, think I’m only asking for attention. So I usually keep things of this nature to myself. When my dad passed away a few years ago, I barely told anyone. Maybe part of it is that I didn’t want anyone feeling bad for me, but I also didn’t want to bestow my grief on others. But I’m learning that that is okay. It’s okay to feel pain and to share it with others, especially in times like this when we only have each other. And that’s why I want anyone reading this post right now to tell those people who you have in your life how much they mean to you, and all of those things you admire about them. Because you never know when that chance to say something will be gone. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Say it now, and say it loud.

The lyrics for this post’s title came from Childish Gambino’s Glory