Just take a minute and think about something with me. I’m not one of those people that's particularly interested in history or ancestry, but those topics are interesting when thought about theoretically. Now, if you are a believer in fate this may not seem as incredible to you as it is for me, but if you’re open to imagining that we have free will for a second, think about this:

If I asked you to think way back to when our first ancestors were walking this Earth, your brain can not comprehend how long ago that was. None of us are mentally capable of imagining how many generations came before us and, even if we calculated it, that number would still be too large for us to truly grasp. So, believe me when I tell you it’s a lot.

Your parents, their parents, their parent’s parents, and so on all the way back to before they even knew what the word “parent” was, had to have found each other and conceived their child in the exact moment with the exact cells that they had or the entire timeline would change (if this idea confuses or interests you I highly recommend the movie About Time).

The amount of times something could have gone wrong over the past thousands of years is an astronomical number. And if that doesn’t make things hard enough, think about it with more free will. What if they had chosen someone else as a spouse? Chose to live in a different place? Accidentally died before continuing the bloodline? Decided not to have kids? These decisions are fine, of course-- but it's crazy to think about the amount of times something could have gone wrong, and yet here you are.

It’s because of this that throwing away a life, either literally or metaphorically, seems like a true waste to me. For some, they believe that there is a purpose for each person - that their specific chain of actions conspired for a reason. Whether you believe that or not, I think we can both agree that we are lucky to be here.

Do something worthy of your place here. If you have the means, do it! If you don’t have the means right now, find a way to get them or work around them. You don’t have to save a village or cure cancer (although I do recommend those things if possible). Just aim to do something good for someone at least once a week. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but it could make a big difference to someone else.

In conclusion, using the inspirational lyrics of one of my favorite Monty Python Songs, “Galaxy Song”:

“So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure,

How amazingly unlikely is your birth;

And pray that there’s intelligent life

Somewhere out in space,

‘Case there’s bugger all down here on Earth!”