In two months, it would be the five year anniversary of the "Last Lecture". Five years ago, he taught us to live our lives right, and karma would take care of itself. He taught us to chase our childhood dreams. He taught us to live life to its fullest because one never knows when it might be taken from us. A worthy lesson that was learnt by everyone at that time, and perhaps forgotten by many by now. Ashamedly, I have to admit to be one of those people.
We're always been told to cherish life. It is an old adage revisited through books, television, news and anecdotes passed around daily. We know of its value, yet we need to be constantly reminded. It seems that the message is always driven home the hardest when it is accompanied by the occurance death. Death of a loved one, death of a friend or acquaintance or death of a celebrity. We begin to cherish life more when brushing past death.
For a few years now, my godfather started to talk to me about staying healthy, and how its more important than many other things. He said that "when you reached his age", you'll see your friends start to move on to the another world, and you'll start feeling the inevitability of death, and the value of life and health. That qualifying sentence seems to add a significant time lapse. I was lulled into a false sense of security that death is something that is far in the distance, a good 40 odd years away.
At our age, our experiences with death often come from an older generation. Since that's the natural order of life, we often don't put that much thought into it. Recently, a friend of 14 years passed on. A friend that I may not have been very close to, but spent 7 years in neighboring classes with and played catching(tag) and video games with a long time ago. In fact, I was using Facebook at the very moment his brother used his account to spread the unfortunate news. The sudden passing of someone you know leads to feelings that can't be easily described by words. Rest in peace, Kai Shyang.
A couple of weeks ago, I got into a bike accident. A damage tire was dislodged by a rock, and correspondingly I was hurled away from the road onto the curb. I escaped with mere scratches on my forearm. At the very moment I fell, a car zoomed right past me on the left. Shortly after I recovered from the shock of the fall, I came to the gross realization that I had just cheated death. My bike could have easily hurled me into the road, which would have left me much worse than just scratches on my arm.
People say that near-death experiences often leads to your life flashing past your eyes. I'm not sure what exactly I experienced there and then, but things important enough to me came to my mind. Things I wanted to do, things I have not done, people I cared about. I'm so thankful to God that I'm still alive.
A classic question people like to ask is that "if you were to die tomorrow, what would you do/how would you change your life?' Should we really be waiting till that day? Will you know when that day is? I think now is as good a time as any to start living life to its fullest. No more wasting time with frivolous pursuits and activities. No more waiting for a better time to starting doing what you've put on your past 5 new year's resolution.
dum loquimur, fugerit invida aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero. (While we speak, envious time will have {already} fled. Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future.)
