Emergency Rooms
Emergency rooms, or hospitals in general, deserve a more positive recognition than they receive.
Most people go through life hating emergency rooms and hospitals. The white-washed halls remind them of death; the sterile scent that clings to the nurses’ uniforms, a stark reminder of impending goodbyes; the doctors’ white coats and clipboards, bringers of bad news.
But what I’ve realized about emergency rooms, after the first time I was rushed into one due to a bad case of diarrhea, is this: Emergency rooms are beautiful.
They are beautiful not because they have thousands of lives teetering on the edge but because they have seen the most fervent of prayers. The cheap, peeling paint and the waxed floor have heard the most heartfelt of apologies; the blaring lights have seen the sincerest of goodbyes and the loveliest of salutations.
After all, where does a mother first feel love for her newborn child? Where does a daughter learn to forgive her estranged father? Where does a brother apologize to a sibling he has wronged for so long? Where does a grandchild pray for the recovery of the grandmother who took him in at the age of 5? Where does a husband plead for the recovery of his wife of 25 years? Where does a friend realize just how much the person strapped to the dripping IV means to him? And where do you realize just how blessed you are to still be alive after a traumatizing accident?
Emergency rooms and hospitals… remind us, more than anything, that life can come and go. The people you think will be around forever suddenly might not be there tomorrow. The parents you have been neglecting because you are having too much fun and you are too busy? They might be gone in a snap. The brother who drives you nuts with his incessant questions and the sister who copies every fashion choice you make? They might be whisked away in the blink of an eye. The grandparents you think will be there on your wedding day? Old age can snatch them away even before your engagement happens (maybe even before your first stable relationship). The friend you’ve been holding a grudge against for so long? You never know when his heart will stop beating. And you. The things you have been jotting down on your bucket list—what if you run out of time for them? What if there is no tomorrow?
There is only so much we can do with so little time. Don’t wait until you find yourself in an emergency room or outside a hospital door before you say what you need to say. In this tidal wave we call life, nothing is certain. And the best advice I can give you, from observing other people live out their own, is this: Leave no room for regret. Leave no stone unturned, no opportunity wasted.
Emergency rooms have existed for generations and have watched the most beautiful of reunions and reconciliations. They have witnessed the most heartbreaking things, yes, but they have also been the avenue for the most wonderful things—love, hope, forgiveness and second chances, peace and life-changing epiphanies, and new life.
And so, if you ever need to hear a heartfelt apology or a declaration of love… visit an emergency room. You’ll understand what I mean about emergency rooms being the wrong synonym for sad endings. Most times, emergency rooms or hospitals are where life falls back into place, like pieces of a puzzle finally put together.
I’ll say it again—emergency rooms are a beautiful place.
Tiffannie Ruth Litam is an incoming senior at MGC New Life Christian Academy (Taguig).
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