About Me

   My name is Jessica Reinert. I am almost 24 years old, although sometimes I feel much older. When I think about my life, I think about my family, my friends and all of the opportunities I've had, while a lot of people my age are stuck thinking about the things they don't have. There is much truth in the saying "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone". Unfortunately the only way to learn that is through loss.

     At 15 I was a freshman in high school, I had a close knit group of friends and was adjusting well. Until one day, it was the day we got out for christmas vacation, I got home to find a couple of my aunts and uncles at my house. They were there to tell me that my mom had passed away. For a while I didn't believe it. I still went around doing everything I would usually do because I only saw my mom once a month, which made it harder to believe. I had just seen my mom the day before, she was in the hospital with pneumonia, it couldn't be possible, she was fine. But it was. And for a long time I would sit in my room and cry because I didn't want to talk to anyone about it. But now, almost 9 years later, alhtough not a day goes by that I don't think about her and wish she was here, everything I do in my life is to make her proud, including going back to school.

    Since losing my mom, I have realized how important it is to keep the people you love close to you. And me and my dad have become so much closer since. You see, my dad was born with a hole in his heart and he is on oxygen and takes a cocktail of pills every day. Through a tragedy in my life I relized that I couldn't ignore my dads condition by thinking that he is always going to be here, because he's not, no one is. I now see him once a week, and we go to lunch and go shopping and have fun. I am so glad that we have a new relationship and that we can share time with each other, because time is precious.

   That is just a little taste of my life. It hasn't been easy, but no one ever told me it would be. I just try to remember that it always gets better eventually.