Ah, the life of a teenager. I remember those days fondly. Despite having relatively conservative parents, when it came to high school my parents were unequivocally cool. They believed that alcohol was a right of passage for young men. They didn’t encourage me, but they realized that it was futile to try and stop a teenage boy doing teenage boy stuff.
Teenagers tend to believe they are indestructible. Injuries mean little to them. Sprained ankles and broken bones heal quickly with almost no long-term impact on their lives.
Then at 18, it’s almost as if a switch is turned. Suddenly actions start having consequences. It’s weird. In my high school in one of the biggest cities in the world with about 200 students per grade, not a single student got seriously hurt the four years I was there. I’m talking about Bangkok here, not exactly known for having the safest drivers, smoothest roads, or strictest rules when it comes to medication. Four years and 1,400 students later and zip, zilch, nada. But the year after I graduated it happened.
Sadly, we lost one guy to drugs just eight months after graduating. Fast forward another 6 months, and one lady just happened to be sunbathing when someone decided to take a nosedive off the 25th floor of her building. Wrong place, wrong time, and life had claimed its second victim. The first was the result of poor choices. The second was a one-in-a-million chance.
Fast forward, and slowly in a sort of Final Destination manner, one or two other students didn’t make it. Cancer claimed its first victim from my grade eight years ago, a 38-year-old mother of three young children.
I could have easily joined the ranks back in 2004 when my bungalow imploded in on my wife and I as the tsunami wreaked havoc upon the shoreline of Thailand. It was a harrowing experience, like one out of a disaster movie, but like John Cusack in his movie, 2012, we came out unscathed.
The point I’m making here is you just never know when it’s your time. This year, Covid-19 is a stark reminder of what could happen on any given day. Surreal yes, but not impossible.
Anxiety has spiked this year for obvious reasons – unemployment fears, health issues, limited social interaction, and being confided. They take a toll on our psyche. Thankfully, Japan has been relatively unaffected by the virus, but we’re not out of the woods yet. We keep our masks on, wash our hands regularly, and just have to hope for the best.
Just when we thought our lives were getting back to normal, my own family was hit with a health issue. We always think, it won’t, or can’t happen to us. That we’re young, healthy, and eating well. But it can, and it does.
As the title of this article says, “It can happen to you.”
This might sound a bit negative, but that’s not my intent at all. In fact, this article is actually about hope. Bad things do happen from time to time, we all know that. What we need to do is to prepare for them.
Here are three things you might want to do.
-
Be proactive
We can’t stop the aging process or prevent bad luck, but we can be proactive in our health, to ensure that we give ourselves the best chance to stick around. I eat more vegetables than ever and have reduced my sugar and alcohol intake dramatically though I got a clean bill of health just last week. I just figured that it’s what I should do. Now, I still enjoy an éclair once a week and I’ll be picking up some Umeshu (Japanese plum wine) later this month. I don’t believe in completely cutting out everything we enjoy; I’m just suggesting we might want to be more careful and adjust accordingly.
-
Record a message
I lost my father rather suddenly. He went in for a check-up, got good news, played golf the next day, won, then died in his sleep that night. At least he went happy. What I wouldn’t give to hear his voice one more time. To listen to his stories again. Thankfully, in this day and age, we have the tools to make that a reality.
Every year, I record a message to my wife and son, recapping all the joy of the last year. The highlights and my favorite stories. On my phone now, I have about 30 of my all-time favorite stories so that my son can listen to them to his content and share them with his children, should I not be around by the time they are old enough to enjoy them.
-
Have good insurance
Lastly, as so many people have found out, it pays to have good insurance. According to a study done in 2013, the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States was medical bills. Having insurance gives you peace of mind. With any luck, you won’t need it, but the time you need insurance is before your house catches on fire. You need to have insurances to protect your family financially, which means money to cover any hospital stays, surgeries or treatment as well as your mortgage as it’s the biggest loan most people have. Having a health scare is always rough, but when it impacts your bank account or worse, your living conditions, that only adds to insult to injury.