My life has been pretty fucking tame as of yet, and especially compared to what I've read here and the things so many millions in the course of human history have gone through, and are still going through right now.

A few of those moments, though:

Watching my grandfather die peacefully. I remember my father picked me up and lifted me over his bed. I kissed his cold, white forehead as soon as his heart and breathing stopped. Seeing the men who came in the somber white van carry out his body between them, wrapped in the bedsheet. I could see and feel the weight of it. I was 9 years old.

Hearing that my older brother had nearly destroyed his liver binge-drinking before a suicide attempt. Watching him get his life together. Inspired.

The almost painfully tangible sense of growing self-awareness and depth of thought and feeling that slowly began building when I was 11. Not any particular occurence, and something that everyone goes through during that time in their lives, but there were shocking moments of revelation, if you will, that felt like a new pair of eyes had opened deep within me, and I was finally seeing a bit more of the world. I miss that feeling.