Newsflash: You’re Going To Die One Day

I hate to be Captain Obvious but I really have to ask: do you know you’re going to die one day?

I know, this is exactly how you wanted to start your Thursday, with a warm reminder that our days on earth are numbered. But I don’t mean to put a damper on your day. On the contrary, today I hope to inspire you.

I know it’s the holiday season because my emotions have been up and down like a see-saw. Since my teenage years, I’ve been a little apprehensive about the holidays; I associate them with stress. For the most part, I think that this has simply become a self-fulfilling prophesy. So I’ve made a decision to enjoy the holidays this year and not approach it with any negativity. Why? Because I’m going to die one day and God-willing, I have several decades of holidays ahead of me and I better stop the cycle before it becomes a vicious one.

Sometimes our lives after college, can seem like a cycle too – wake up, go to work or go to school, maybe work out, maybe watch some television, maybe hang out with some people; Facebook, Twitter, etc. On the weekends, go to brunch, watch some more television, maybe go out, and maybe stay in. Either way, it feels like a cycle. It’s not the worst cycle in the world but sometimes it feels like we’re not living but merely existing.

When was the last time you did something that made you feel alive?

This thought came to me last week when my friend gave me a ride home on her bicycle. Apart from the fact that the movie One Day, completely ruined the idea of biking in a city – Anna Hathway’s character gets horrifically hit by a bus and dies after finally getting hitched with the guy who she’s been in love with for over a decade – the idea of biking in Chicago scares me half to death. And I am in no way advocating getting on the “backseat” of a bike (I’m pretty sure that’s illegal actually), but I felt alive; mostly because I thought we were going to die at any moment, but the feeling of trying something new, made me feel alive, if only mildly.

It got me thinking, we should feel more alive when we’re, well, living. It’s a scary feeling, the feeling of being alive, but it’s also thrilling and satisfying. Whether it’s going for that job that we’ve been eyeing, or trying to get into an education program we think we’ll love or moving to a new city or country or approaching that guy or girl you think is the finest thing since sliced bread – doing things that are new, things that take you out of your comfort zone, will make you feel alive. That my friends, is simply a fact of life.

None of us like to think about it or talk about it but one day you and I are definitely going to die – this is one of the few certainties we have. So, that dream, that goal, that thing that you keep putting off to the next day or the perfect time; that thing that will make you feel alive – go and do it now. Because even more than just the fact that you are going to die one day, the last thing you want to happen in your last years is to look back on a life with many dreams and goals and things that you could have, should have, and would have done. So break the cycle; do whatever you must, but break your cycle.

You’re going to die one day. So till then, live; truly just live.