Personal Narrative-Psychosocial Analysis

Ones’ personal attitudes can significantly influence the approach we take towards grief, loss, death and dying on both a personal and a professional level. The first experience I had with death was at the age of 9 years old. The loss was experienced during my elementary school years. In accordance to Erikson’s Developmental Stages, I was in the Industry vs. Inferiority stage. I should have had a better understanding of death at this age, but also would have experienced the death briefly (Christ, 2000). However, due to the relationship being long-distance it was not a close relationship. My paternal grandfather passed away in Mexico, whom I did not have the privilege to get to know well. The only memories I have of him are through old photos up to the age of 4. I experienced grief and loss profoundly during college. Grieving the loss of a friendship can be similar to mourning the death of a loved one. I was 21
I originally had thought, I had gotten over it my senior year of college. It was very hard, because I never had the chance to express how I felt. I never received the closure I sought. The friendship came to an end to me, but we both had different needs. He continued to show me how his life was going through the Snapchat app unaware of how painful reaching acceptance had been for me. In fact, nearly two years after I had last seen him, out of the blue I was invited to a goodbye party for him. By then, I knew that speaking to him would not help me get over the broken friendship. After everything it had taken for me to accept the end of the friendship, I could not bring myself to attend it. I had finally understood that his purpose in my life was over and I entered the stage of acceptance this time for good. By this time, I was in my first year of grad school. I made peace with the unavoidable ending and accepted I could not be a part of his life anymore (Kubler et al,