Death and Religion in Culture

My mother and I are in the car on our way to my relatives house for a fun summer
cookout by the pool. It is late afternoon and the sun is beating down on my face through the
window. The drive is short but in just one instant it felt like time stood still. Just as my mother
and I start to turn on the road where my relatives house is located my mother gets a phone
call. When she answers our lives will be changed forever. My uncle, Raymond, is on phone. I
hear is faint and shaky voice slip through the speaker of the phone. He mumbles out the
dreadful words, we lost Ramy. Ramy is my cousin who is just a year older than I, my best
friend as a child. My optimistic mother immediately and calmly says, Well we can find him Ray
dont worry. My uncle frantically shouts back, No Linda! Hes gone. Little Raymond is dead.
By this time my mother had parked in the driveway and I had opened my door to get out of the
car, while I sat in the seat with my legs out of the door. My father is now stepping out of the
front door of the house coming out to greet his daughter and his wife, completely unknowing of
the tragedy that has just happened to our family. I step out of the car and run to my father, as
soon as my body hits my fathers arms I collapse. It felt as though everything had been ripped
out of me. My whole body ached like someone had ripped every muscle in my body then threw
me into my father. In this situation my father is panicking, he has no idea what is wrong with
me and he is frantically asking whats wrong and if I am hurt. I can say nothing, I am hurting all
over but not out of physical pain but emotional. I am in shock, I am only thirteen years old and
my childhood best friend is gone, completely gone forever. The following days proceed to be
filled with a long car ride to Tennessee, visiting family, going to wakes and finally the depressing
funeral. Things moment and memory in my life changed my life forever.
Death is a part of everyones life, we have loved ones who die, pets die, and eventually
we die. There is no way of escaping death and all you can do is manage to deal with it. In my
experiences death changes everyones lives forever. Everyone in different cultures deal with
death differently and in my familys culture we have a wake and a viewing along with a funeral.
Some cultures just have one of those or none of those. No matter the way you deal with the
death of a loved one we all have to do it at some point in our lives. Not only must you deal with
death in the logistics of it, funeral expenses, arranging viewings, funerals, and visitations but,
you must also deal with the emotional side of dealing with death. Some people handle it better
than others and some people it really just depends on how special the person was that they
lost. Whether you believe it or not any death you experience will change your life forever,
sometimes it will change your outlook on things you have experienced before, sometimes it will
change what you wish to do with your life in the future, and sometimes just sometimes it will
change everything about you. Even for a brief moment in time death may change everything
youve ever known and everything you will know. When I lost my cousin Raymond it changed
my life forever in every aspect. My religion changed, my view on life changed, and what I
wished to do with the rest of my life changed. It was a wakeup call that I got at a very young
age. Although I am not thankful for the death of my dear and beloved cousin Raymond, I am
thankful now that I got the opportunity to change things around before living my life too long
without living like we do not know what lies ahead. My dealing with death changed my life
forever and it even changed my religion. I wasnt always the religion I am now, which is
agnostic. The true definition of Agnostic is a person who believes that nothing is known or can
be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a
person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God. My religion is not having a religion at all.
My home town is Statesville, North Carolina. This town is about an hour north of the
UNCC campus. This is a small town where everyone knows everyone and almost all of the
traditional families there are Christian. They visit and participate in the Christian church every
Sunday and Wednesday as they believe they should, although I am not saying they shouldnt.
This small town in North Carolina is located in what is called The Bible Belt. This simply means
that if you live here and do not believe in the Christian god or have another religion you are
looked down upon as though you are not worth their time and attention. Your opinion does not
matter and they are absolutely certain that you will be damned to hell for your sin of disbelief
in the great lord and Jesus Christ. Most of the people in this small town do not accept you as
generously as they do when you were once known to be a Christian. There is a small family
owned caf/diner in this petite town where the owners and every person in their family is
continually active in their Christian church. I obtained a job at the caf/diner that this married
couple owned but this was a difficult task for me for my own personal reasons. When the wife
allowed me to work for her she never questioned my religion because legally she cannot and if
you are a nice girl in Statesville you are automatically known to be a Christian young lady.
Although I am a nice and mannered young lady my religion is not Christianity, but my boss
never asked so I never told. When you are a Christian you are supposed to accept everyone as
the same no matter race, sexuality, or religion; everyone is equal and no judgment shall be
given out. I worked at this same establishment for months before anyone found out that I was
not a Christian. Once people started to find out, from an accident slip up on my part, you
wouldve thought that everyone in that work place had found out that I had just murdered
someone. They all gave me these condescending looks and one girl came out right and told me I
was damned to hell. I wasnt going to put up with this treatment, I know that there are some
people out there that may accept everyone no matter what but my experience with Christianity
has not been very pleasant to think otherwise. As you can see religion is a huge deal in
Statesvilles culture while in many other places of the world it may not be a stipulation at all.
Some places do not even have religion, they just have peace and love.