NEVER ENOUGH TIME.

When a man faces death, two popular sayings you hear them saying the movies are one? -” There’s always light at the end of the tunnel” and two- “when a man dies, his whole life flashes before him in a second, just before taking his last breath”. When you come to think of these words, you keep asking yourself, “Could they be true? “do these things actually happen? well, I guess I’ll be finding out soon sadly.

My name is John Hathaway and I’m a 34-year-old man who’s about to die of cerebral cancer. I was diagnosed about two months ago by my doctor, Dr. Charlie. Dr. Charlie, a very nice woman, a single mother with two kids, two lovely children, a girl and a boy named Emma and Ryan, twins I guess, yeah because this sometimes jinx a lot.

I was born on the 25th day of December 1985 to wonderful parents called Tony and Martha Hathaway. my birth was unexpected as they had already given up hope of having a child or having children because they couldn’t have children after about five years of marriage until I strung along. My mum kept on telling me stories of how they’d stay up all night looking into the stars and wishing for a child and all the sleepless nights they had when my dad would try to console her and give her hope that she will soon bear her child, and like a dream with the night, I came along. Growing up, I was always treated like a special child, although I was, because I was good at everything I set myself to do and I lived a comfortable life, because my parents provided everything I ever needed, food clothes, a house, well I guess all I can just say is I was blessed, yeah if you put it that way.

My childhood was fun growing up. I made two friends living in my neighborhood whose names were Tyler and Ramon. I met Tyler and Ramon back in third grade on my first day of school I had just transferred into. on my first day of school, I was being bullied by a huge kid named Ronald Donovan, Donovan was the big bully in the school, always picking on kids smaller than him, at third grade he was already bigger than everyone in the class, most kids in my class feared him just because of his size. On my first day, I had just been transferred from my old school Delaware Middle School, into this fine Institution that I am proud to be once a student of, Santa Monica College, southern California. I was down the hallway just after my first class trying to find my way down to my second class, I was new there, so I hadn’t worked my way around my timetable yet. while trying to figure out my timetable, Donovan walks by seeing that I’m a new student, decides to pick on me. I tried fighting back but I was overpowered due to his stature, then came along Tyler and Ramon to the rescue. they saved my life that day and ever since then, we became best friends. Taylor, Ramon, and I had fun. But then in life, sometimes we’ve just got to move on.

After middle school and High School, I moved to further my education by going through to the university. Life in the university was pretty hard as I was trying to balance my academic life and my social life. I wanted to study computer engineering, but then I was offered an entirely different course, I was offered Geology, which is the study of the Earth. I knew the earth was a beautiful place, but who knew the earth was beautiful inside-out. I’ve traveled around the world, been to a lot of places around the world, and there are just amazing things everywhere! Each geographical location with its unique gifts from nature, speaking of the animals, natural resources, trees, topography (that’s the arrangement of natural features of an area). At the end of my four Adventurous years at the university, I graduated with honors in my BSc. I was among the best five graduating students.

I’ve always been a good boy all my life, obedient, God-fearing just your typical good guy you see in the movies and novels, but the truth is I never really made decisions on my own, always abiding by the rules, always doing what I was told, which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but the truth is I missed out on a lot of things in my life, all because I was “an obedient child”. I wasn’t able to fall in love, the chances came, but I was more driven by my education and my career that I never had the time. And now all I wish is that I had more time. More time to mend the things I missed out on, time out with friends, partying, fun! (don’t get me wrong, I had good times, but I didn’t have FUN!). I want to fall in love, get married, have kids, grow old, and die in peace, but not this way.

I have three days left now, and I’ve kind of been meeting up with Dr. Charlie, yeah, don’t be surprised, I told you earlier, she’s a very nice woman, beautiful and has all the best qualities a man would want in a woman. She’s widowed with two kids, we met two months ago as her patient initially, until we started getting fond of each other and I grew to like her. We started going out, having fun, weekends, movie night and so much more, but sadly not all good things are meant to last forever. I have another date tonight with her and her kids, I want to make my last few days memorable and impactful, if not on the world but, maybe on her two lovely kids. So many things I want to achieve, but such little time. Time, the basic construct of our existence. Well, mine’s up now, with three days to leave a mark on this world and make peace with all my shortcomings. Personally? I feel I’ve had a great life, and for others out there who might read this story, my biggest advice is for you to just be yourself, set goals, and make sure you achieve them because accountability is assured either in life or in death, the big question is “what did you do with your time?”.