Tuesday's with Morrie

"Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live"

I was quite excited to read Tuesday's with Morrie when I saw that on our book list the beginning of this semester. But I never realized how much one book would change my life. I was sitting with my mom and Grandparents the weekend before I moved back to Rexburg. As we were casually talking with each other, my Grandpa started talking about a movie he had recently bought called "Tuesday's with Morrie" He then went and put it in and made sure that my mom and I watched every single minute of it. I fell in love with it even more and couldn't wait to start reading the book when I got to school.

Well when the week came to read the book I couldn't put it down. I found myself crying while reading it even though I knew what happened, thanks to the movie, i still cried in the book.

But then came the class discussion...

This day was what many others on the blog have called "Cave Day" we started off by talking about the book a little bit and then we went into the mine experience. A lot of tears were shed, everyone was crying, I hit my breaking point when I had to write my last letter to my family. I knew I was actually not dying, and that I was going to walk out of this classroom in just a short little while, but Brother Grant told us that if we wanted to get the most out of this experience then we should take it very seriously, so that is exactly what I did. I had ten minutes to write everything I wanted to leave my family with. As I started with my mom, it was slowly hitting me, then my dad hit me a little harder, then my siblings and my niece.I was struggling to keep myself from bawling. I knew my time was limited and so I wanted to write fast and focus more on what I was saying than the fact that I was "dying". Then Time was up a few people shared there letters and talked about what we had learned. I don't think there was a dry eye in the room.

As I walked out of that class that day I learned a lot of things, but one quote from the book kept going through my head over and over again, "Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live" In a way I had "died" and it was through that experience that I learned how to live. My dad is a fireman, I have grown up in a home where you are sure you say "I love you" to those you love because life is so unpredictable that you never know what is going to happen. That day I understood why my parents taught us that, I called my mom and my sister on my walk home and made sure that they understood that I loved them. I think one of the biggest things I learned on "Cave Day" was to learn how to die, to not fear death, but be sure to live life to the fullest, and be sure everyone in your life knows you love them. Never just assume they know, be SURE they know!

-Whitney Dial