Cognition-

There is an ancient idea, one that has taken a lot of self-searching to realise. It has been said innumerable times, and has been worded in a myriad of ways. However, I have found that the best version of it seems to be "When our heart breaks, we allow it to grow far more than ever before." Most people who have never had their heart broken or have made a mistake that has thrown them a loop dismiss this as a 'dumb quote'. This is also the case for a lot of people who have gone through such pain, but that's simply because they haven't learned from their mistakes. They're too immature to acknowledge that they can become a better person due to this experience.
I have been in a few situations like this. At the time I wished that it wasn't happening or that the precursory events hadn't occured, but I realise now that this emotional desire is simply a human reaction to pain. Just as when we burn our hand on a hot stove, we recoil the appendage and wish we hadn't leaned down, we recoil and wish that we hadn't made the mistake. It's true that humans have to learn things the hard way. Nothing worth learning can be taught, if it is true knowledge, you won't learn it in school. We must figure things out on our own. Just like this essay, nothing I say on this subject will truly make a difference for the majority of you. Unless you're like me and have been through a truly heart-wrenching situation, this won't truly click.
When we lose someone that is really close to us, someone we really love, whether it be a death or simply having them leave, we learn more about ourselves than we could had they stayed. We learn that they mean more to us than we really thought possible, or perhaps we learn that they didn't mean as much as we thought. Either way, we still gain far more knowledge and maturity because of it. We learn from our mistakes. We also learn that there is another adage that is true, albeit a tad cliched. "You don't really know what you've got until it's gone."
This is, of course, not to say that everyone should detach themselves from something or someone they care about...but rather to show you that there are benefits to one of the harder things to pull through in this life we live.

(C) 2006 Sean Slater (Thanks Maroney!) All Rights Reserved, All Wrongs Justified