What was pain? Was pain having your arm blown off by a grenade? Was pain being shot in the chest as you ran forward, toward the advancing enemy? Or was pain watching your friends’ lifeless eyes as they were taken away on a stretcher, to be buried in a mass grave?
Was it looking into the face of the enemy, only to find a boy just like yourself, fighting for his life amidst the struggle of the war that was anything but short and sweet?
Did you ever wonder if you were going to see your family again? Your friends, the girl you noticed from a distance? Your loved ones who thought of you every day, just as you thought of them? Did you think of the day that you would finally be together, in the very country you were fighting for?
What was it like on Christmas Day, sitting in a muddy trench with comrades all thinking of home? Were you wishing the war was over, or were you thinking of the enemy, probably doing the same thing? Were you watching rats running through dirt, as you sat there depressed? Or were you singing Christmas carols with all your heart and soul, trying to cheer the dreary atmosphere?
What was it like when you heard of D-Day? Were you there, trudging through already bloody water on the way to the shore? Aiming your gun at people who shot at you, just trying to save themselves from the harsh bullet ripping through their skin, blood spurting out everywhere? Or were you in a dirty tent, watching nurses and doctors frantically rushing about, trying to save everyone but somehow seeing men die by the minute? Did you have a bandage on your shoulder, or were you hobbling around on one leg, maneuvering a crutch through the uneven ground?
But maybe your flame has extinguished. The spark gone out, the light gone from your eyes. You gave your life for me and my family, so we could live free and safe without knowing the horrors of war. The selfless sacrifice you gave will be forever remembered, and for that we are eternally grateful.
Emily Milanovich, a Grade 8 student at Drayton Heights Public School in November 2016, placed first in the local, zone and district levels in the Royal Canadian Legion Essay competition with the accompanying essay.
