What happen after death?

A sudden burst of cool wind blows, trembling the top of my body down to my feet. And there is me, walking alone on a street that filled with darkness and emptiness showing no sign of people around. Only rats, cockroaches and stray dogs can be seen as they search for their dinner in the piles of garbage. The cool wind blows again, and death is in the air.



What is death? In term of scientific explanation, death is the termination of biological functions that sustain a living people. What about in real life? In real life, we think that death is the end of a person’s journey; an ending to everything in a person’s life. It is an ending to all the suffering in this world, an ending to all the joyfulness in this world, and an ending to all the things that are connected to us. So where do people go when their time is up in this so called “real world”? As we all know, there is a place which is called “heaven” and “hell” in this world. Although its existence is not proofed, but people do believe that people who died goes to either heaven or hell based on religions. Those who are the bad guys, their souls will go to hell when they died, whereas the good guys go the heaven. But what if heaven and hell does not exist at all? Where will all the dead be when they died?



To many of us, we say life is a just like running a marathon. We have been running from the pass towards the future. But we are not running alone. We have friends, family and our love ones to walk with us along the journey. We helped each others when we faced obstacles in along the journey, we lift one and another up when one could not stand and run anymore, we share our joy together and we share our sadness. It seems to have last forever. But one day death will come, and when it did, they could not run anymore. A full stop has been set on their journey. However, they are not disappear or gone to the heaven or hell. Instead, they are there standing right where they have stopped, looking at us who are still running forward from behind. They have not disappear, not in heaven or hell, because they are there standing forever, waving their hands at us, giving us support from where they stand. Thus, giving us the courage to continue running forward. Yes, everyone is there standing at where they stopped, and I believe that my dad is also there, standing, looking at me, waving his hand. And people do always look back at those who have stopped running, not being able to release themselves from the lost, just like me. I looked back at him sometimes when I got tired of running, but in my heart, I know he will tell me: son, you’ll fall if you keep looking back. Remember to keep looking forward and live your life to the fullest. And that is what motivates me to keep running until today.



All in all, life is actually very short when we looked back, although it seems that we have been running for quite a long time. Everything in our life happened so quickly without us realizing it. Though we think that we have run far from where our friends, family, or love ones had stopped, we are actually only few meters far from them when we looked back at our journey. Before I end the speech, I hereby encourage you all to treasure what you are having now, especially your friends, family and your love ones. Spend more time together with them while they are still here running with you, there will be no turning back and no space for regrets once they have stopped running with you, leaving you alone continuing the journey. And even for those who had stopped running, I believe they will always be there, reminding us to look forward, and gives us courage to continue running our path, just like my dad. Here’s a quote to end my speech:



“You can shed tears that she is gone,

or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,

or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,

or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,

or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her only that she is gone,

or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,

be empty and turn your back.

Or you can do what she'd want:

smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”

~David Harkins