On the 28th of May 2013 my little brother was taken to the doctor's because of a fever. For some reason both my parents went with him and I was left with my older brother to take care of my four-year-old sister. I wasn't told what was happening. I'd seen my brother throwing up violently just a while before and he'd been down with a fever for the past two days. Something must have been very wrong, because some long hours later, my dad called to tell me my brother had been rushed to hospital.
My sister has a funny need to hold someone's hand when she's going to sleep. That night I was the one who needed a hand to hold. I didn't know what was going on with my brother, what the doctors were doing to him; whether he was going to be okay. I remembered me telling him I hated him and wanted him to die a couple days before because of some stupid argument. That night, watching the sun set, not knowing what was going to happen tomorrow, I regretted every single bad thing I'd ever done to my little brother.

'You don't know what you've got until it's gone.'
I've heard that said about a million times in my life. But that night, it truly realised what it meant. So many times I didn't appreciate what I had - a family, loving parents... my little brother. For all I knew I could have lost him. And that thought was breaking my heart. And to think a couple days ago I said those horrible words to him. I was a monster. How could I live being ungrateful, what kind of life is that?
I spent the night thinking and worrying and crying, because I had no idea what was going to happen next.

The next day, my dad came home and told me that my little brother was okay. That moment I was so relieved I couldn't breathe. I was told my brother had an infection and was to stay in hospital for now. My mum would stay with him and come home sometimes to check on us while my dad went to work.
On thursday we all went to visit my little brother in hospital. He had been in there for two days now, having recovered a bit. His left eye was swollen so much he couldn't open it - that must have been where the infection was - and he wasn't eating his food. He had some kind of needle bandaged into his hand to give him medicine, and a nurse came in regularly to give him eye drops. Even though he was in such a state, just seeing him made me want to cry of happiness.
My brother told me he had something called orbital cellulitis. When I came home I looked it up on google.
'Complications include hearing loss, blood infection, meningitis, and optic nerve damage (which could lead to blindness). '
People had died from it. People had died.

My brother could have died.

Or he could have gone blind, or another terrible thing could have happened. My adorable little brother who is very annoying. Unbelievable.
I thought to myself, what would I have done if I had lost him that night? What if he wasn't as lucky as he was?
It would have destroyed me. I was so grateful that my little brother was okay.

The next day, I learned that my dad was the one who decided to take my little brother to hospital. My mum wanted to wait until the paracetamol started to work, but my dad took one look at him and knew something wasn't right.
What if he hadn't done that? What if my dad didn't come home from work at that time? What if we'd waited?
We'd have been waiting for him to die.

The truth is, life is uncertain. We think we know what tomorrow will be like, but we honestly don't. We don't even know what will happen in the next minute. A thousand things could go wrong, or a million things could go right. Either way, we have no idea. And, having realised that, I decided that I will never again take a thing in my life for granted. Being healthy, having a home, food, money, a stable life and most importantly, the people I love.
You will never get back the time you spend being negative. Appreciate what you have, because you never know, in the next minute it could all disappear.