I was sitting in class on a Tuesday afternoon and all of a sudden I heard the faint sound of Blueface’s anthem “Thotiana”, I was confused for a second but then remembered that I recently changed my ringtone to this. I quickly grabbed my phone out of my backpack, muted it, then saw my brothers face on the screen. Never wanting to miss an opportunity to chat I walked out of class and answered the phone. On the other end was my twin brother but something was different. He was quiet and mellow when talking to him is usually like drinking a 5 hour energy.

The first thing he said to me was, “should I have not gone away for school”. I paused in a moment of confusion. My brother is in a fraternity, has multiple interships lined up, outstanding grades and an amazing social life yet he is asking me if he should have not left home? Something was wrong. He then went on to say that he feels bad about leaving for school when he could have stayed home, went to school locally and spent his extra time with my dad. This whole conversation was just confusing to me because I never really noticed how my dad’s cancer diagnosis impacted my brother and I was finally getting a taste of it first hand.

Now a little background. In the middle of my freshman year of college my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. A few months before this he had an appointment where his doctor told him there was a possibility he had cancer but they needed to do some tests first. We didn’t tell my brother because he was away at school and we didn’t want to worry him. During Thanksgiving break when my brother came home my sister drunkenly told him. When my brother found out we kept it from him for a little he was hurt but he didn’t make that a reason to distance himself.

About a month later someone cancelled their appointment at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and my dad got a miracle surgery slot. During the surgery they went in and removed his prostate.

A year later when the cancer came back my dad underwent radiation. When he was doing radiation I went to study abroad in Italy, I didn’t want to go but my dad convinced me and I’m glad he did. Now a year after radiation we just found out that the cancer spread to part of his spine and lymph nodes. He is going to have to undergo radiation again and now my brother feels bad for being out and living his life.

My brother’s relationship with the members in our family have improved ever since he went to college and he and my dad have an especially close bond. Every time my brother shoots us an update on his grades or classes my dad gets so happy and it took me a little while to realize why. After extensive hours of being around my dad I have realized that all he wants in life is for his kids to succeed. The fact that my brother is out there living on this own and is doing well is making my dad feel better about the fact that he’s not gonna be able to be here and support us forever.

I interviewed a friend that went through something similar to what my dad and brother went through with her mother. Around Thanksgiving of our freshman year in college her mom suddenly fell ill. She was hospitalized and then transferred to a bigger hospital because of the rarity of the situation. She then fell into a coma for a month or so and it was then determined that she went into septic shock. My friend decided to stay home from school for January term to be with her mom as she recovered. Due to the lack of blood flow in her mother’s body she lost some fingers and her right foot. This caused her to use a wheelchair and the doctors advised that she will never walk again. Two years later and her mom is walking, driving, working.

A story that seems very different than my own actually doesn’t fall that far from the tree. My friend continued to tell me that she was not close to her mom or have a very good relationship with her or either of her parents but soon after this tragedy occurred her mom and her became very close. She went on to tell me that there were times when she really didn’t want to be away at school anymore and she wanted to come home while her mom was recovering. But her mom convinced her to stay every time and told her that she wants her to have this opportunity and doesn’t want her to have any regrets. She said ever since that moment they have been closer than ever and they share every moment and detail of their lives with each other.

I interviewed another person currently going through a similar situation. Around 3 weeks ago one of my classmates mom had a mini heart attack. She was at school when she got a call from her brother at 2 in the morning. Confused as to why her brother was calling her so late she asked what was going on, he told her their mom was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital because she had a heart attack. She was so flustered not knowing what to do she broke down and her boyfriend drove her all the way to downtown LA where they had to figure out which hospital they were taking her mom to.

She ended up staying at the hospital until 6 am. She described her mom as looking like she was dead. She drove back to her house instead of the dorms to be with her brother. She didn’t go to class the following Monday because she took her brother to go visit her. She said at this point her mom still didn’t look good but she was getting better.

“I’ve always felt bad for living on campus because I know my mom needs help with my brother sometimes and I can’t be there but when this happened I really thought of just not going back to school for the remaining of the semester to just be with them you know. She’s much better now but. I still wish I was there to help her out and drive her around or do errands for her.”

Her mom and her were always close but with this happening it made her realize how important their relationship actually was.

I know you are probably wondering where I am going with this. I guess my main point is all of these situations are absolutely terrible but even with something so heartbreaking something beautiful can come out of it. These aren’t stories of kids in college living away from their sick parents, they are how something great can come out of something so bad.

Bittersweet was originally published in POETINIS: DRINK IN THE TRUTH on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

He stands completely still, the hair on his back moving ever so slightly with the wind, he takes a deep breath in and takes off. Running as fast as he can, weaving, dodging and diving a local campus squirrel is taking on the new art installment, the Walkers, as if he were a dog in an agility course. Unlike the squirrel, taking this change head on, students are idly standing by questioning the purpose of the sculptures.

First of all for those who haven’t seen the statues yet, they are pictured below. There are ten man like statues, they stand as tall as a man at 6 and a half feet tall and are placed in a line in random order. Each statue has a cement slab at its base to keep it grounded. The statues resemble black 4D versions of the man on restroom signs. They stand on a grass patch between the spot and the library. They are currently making a walk way that weaves throughout the Walkers, to make the installation more interactive.

I took the time to speak to a few students about what they thought about the Walkers. Art major Hallie Lee said, “At first I was skeptical seeing their wooden prototypes because I thought that was the art piece. I was, how you say, pleasantly surprised to see their final iron form”. Before the statues were put into place wooden prototypes were placed around campus with the sign “The Walkers are coming”. Nothing else was really explained about the art to students so no one really knew how to react to them.

Other students were concerned about the placement of the art. While admiring the art a student said to me, “I am just afraid that I am going to be running across the grass at night and bump into them.” I personally do not think this student understood when I asked if she knew the meaning of the art. Coming from me, a normal student, I could not really tell you anything about the walkers because I have absolutely no idea about them. To me they are just life size stick figures placed randomly on a patch of grass on campus.

After doing some research I soon realized that these statues are far from random stick figures. Regina Spadoni wrote an article in the Quaker Campus that opened my eyes about the new artwork. The artist created and donated these sculptures to symbolizes the friendship that a few coincidences caused by the Whittier College study abroad program created. As a student that has studied abroad through the Whittier College study abroad program the meaning of the artwork tugged on my heart strings in all the right ways. The Walkers are placed randomly because of the coincidences that they represent and that is brilliant.