The idea of losing someone is still so surreal to people. Whether it be a dog or a friend or a family member, it hurts equally as bad when someone passes on. I have personally lost my best friend when we were 15. At the time, I didn't know how to cope, so I suppressed it until I was older and I realized that I was graduating from high school and I was going downstate for swimming and he wasn't there cheering me on anymore.

What was so weird about the entire situation was that the bee has actually helped me cope with losing him. I would start to see more bees after he was gone, and they would land on me (which confused me since this hasn't happened prior to his death). After researching, I found that bees were common sighting after losing someone. The bee has been seen as a symbol of good fortune across many different cultures, although what they bring varies. Some say they bring balance, while others believe in their healing abilities. What do I believe? I believe that the bee is an important symbol in my day-to-day life.

Buzzing in my ear and stinging on my back, I sat in a chair in a tattoo parlor for what felt like hours. My first tattoo lay on my upper back, the bee. As it stings, I think back to a time before the bee meant so much to me, a time before I knew the pain of losing someone important to me. Although he couldn't be there to see the amount of courage I had worked up, I know he was looking down on me and laughing at my facial expressions as the tattoo artist moved the needle so gracefully down my spine. As the artist finished up, he asked, "Why the bee?" I didn't account for people to ask about the tattoo, that's something that I had assumed was an unwritten rule of conversation. I panicked, but then thought of my dear friend looking down on me, I composed myself and replied, "It's for my best friend."