Appreciate the transiency of life. We spend so much of our brief existence taking it for granted, and forgetting how beautiful it is to be at peace with what we have. Our culture seems to have glamorized being bleak; we have made depression and pessimism and death into something fashionable. I wish we would band together to change that, and to create a desire for people to be happy and to hold an exuberance of life. Hating life and living a narrow introverted existence is easy when you are young, but when your youth is gone, you will miss it and you will regret not having thoroughly spent it in a way that is substantial and positive.



I admit, this may be a somewhat morbid topic for discussion; no one likes to think about the reality of our fallible and temporary existence, but it is there and it is staring us down. I feel I have not done enough to savor the past nearly two decades of my life; I have invested so much energy into staring at my feet and contemplating the romance of death, that I had not realized the beauty of life. I have spent so much time focusing inward on my own depression, that I forgot that we are all essentially in control of dictating our own happiness. I wish I had realized this sooner and done more in my life beyond myself.

What brought this about is the death of a family member. I have been estranged from my family for the last six years. I have not seen or spoken to them since I was twelve years-old when we were all in very different places in our lives. We have lost touch with one another and the changes that have occurred in our lives, and i have foolishly done nothing to reconnect with them. Having lost my grandmother, grandfather, and uncle already, my aunt is now in the final stages of terminal cancer as well. I have the rare opportunity now to reach out to her and to say "good bye", a privilege few have when it comes to death. I have been procrastinating on writing to her for months, because to put my "I'm sorry's" and my "I Love You's" on paper will reaffirm to me that I will never see her again. To reminisce of our past and tell her of my plans for the future seems unnecessarily morbid, but I know it will be healing for the both of us. I feel so guilty that it had to take her dying for me to talk to her, and even guiltier to know that I will never be able to spend time with her again.

When you are forced to become so intimate with real sadness and real death, it becomes difficult to continue putting it on a pedestal. We all have our moments when we need to brood, but don't let your entire life be defined by that; don't loose touch with others because you have been consumed by your own sadness. Enjoy the life you are living, because it is a unique experience that you will never have again. Death and loss and pessimism is not worth glorifying. Remind yourself of all the things and all the people that you find beautiful. And spend time with the people near to you because there is never any telling that they will be there to share the moment with you again. Put down your cynicism for a moment and hug someone, because God does not allow us the luxury of second chances.

That is all.