Opinion | Kobe’s death reminded me about the importance of life
The day Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna passed away was a very difficult day for me. I experienced different phases of emotion as the helicopter crash brought back memories of my own father’s passing from a fatal car accident.
Just like Kobe, my dad was an athlete in the limelight, but a football player in his case. A quarterback at De La Salle high school, a wide receiver at the University of Southern California and an upcoming NFL star, my dad made his mark on the field.
Just like Vanessa, Kobe’s wife, my mom had to deal with the intrusivity of various journalists and news outlets who were more concerned about leaking the “hottest” and latest news. News sources didn’t care that my father had a family that would see and read everything they put out; they cared about their own money-making agendas. My mom was aware of this and took matters into her own hands to protect me from the chaos. She spoke with journalists and asked that they be considerate of what details and information were posted online, because his “six-year-old daughter will look him up and read everything when she is older.” In her case, they complied. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for Vanesssa. Negligent, substandard journalism was conducted. The news of Kobe’s death was leaked online by TMZ reporters before his family found out about the incident. And the magnitude of Kobe’s fame meant less journalists would listen to the wishes of his family, because any juicy detail about him will attract an audience – eventually bringing in big money. This corruptive situation is disheartening. In ethical journalism, morality and empathy for the lives affected by a tragedy should always surpass greed for money and popularity.
The death of Kobe and Gianna brought up many strong emotions for me. All day, I couldn’t help but think about the bond my father and I had, a bond similar to the relationship shared between Kobe and his daughter. I thought about how I could’ve been Gianna – I could’ve been in the car with my dad when the accident occurred. These overwhelming thoughts manifested a new perspective on life for me – the perspective that life is too short to hold grudges instead of forgiving and spreading love. Freak accidents like Kobe’s helicopter crash and my dad’s car accident can happen to any one of us at any given moment. And because of that, it’s important that we tell our loved ones how we feel about them. It’s important that we spend as much time as we can with them before it’s too late and we regret what we didn’t have the chance to say.