Last night I fell asleep with the TV on downstairs in my on campus house. This probably will not surprise anyone who knows me because I sleep on the couch downstairs a lot. Don't ask me why, it just happens. It is about 5:30 when I wake up from the sound of the TV and the blinking of commercials. Then the news comes on and I'm about to start my morning in the worst way possible.
The first thing that came up while I was laying on the couch, attempting to regain my bearings of reality, was that a man was just shot and killed on his front porch not more than 3 miles away from me, AND a bus driver from the Columbus area was attacked and stabbed while pulling out of the bus garage. WOW. Good morning to you too.....
I am writing this not to freak you out, trust me I did enough for all of us this morning, but to reflect on it. How in the world is it possible to stay positive all of the time when all the news ever shows is the bad? I realize it is their job to report on things that will improve their ratings, but what does that say about us? It seems like now-a-days you cannot escape all of the bad. Are we wanting to watch this type of stuff on the news in hopes that it will make us feel better since it hasn't happened to us?
I'm rambling and this is seeming to not have a point anymore, I apologize. While I was sitting on the couch watching the news, all I could think about was, 'what if that was me that got shot on the porch?' It is really scary to think that at any moment you could just not exist. Don't think about it, I promise you that your brain will not be able to comprehend it. I write that to say this: Living is not living if you are living in hopes that you will not die.
I don't mean to get all gloom and doom on you guys, but the fact of the matter is: WE ARE ALL GOING TO EVENTUALLY DIE. There. I said it. Why should you worry about something that is inevitably going to happen? Well, I can tell you that if you are worried about dying, it is probably because you aren't ready to. Now obviously nobody wants to die. You have loved ones all around you that you never want to leave, that is completely understandable (I won't get into afterlife issues, that is your prerogative). But here is the problem. If you are constantly worried about being the next person on the news who just got shot, you aren't going to be able to live a satisfying life. Don't live looking over your shoulder like you're in a modern day Final Destination movie. Live in a way that you will be satisfied. Take risks, have fun, and smile while you're doing it.
Sometimes people get so worked up over life that they forget to actually live it. Sometimes its necessary to be spontaneous and do some crazy things that might be seen as stupid. Is jumping out of a plane necessary? No, it probably isn't. Will you make a memory that you will never forget? Yes, you most certainly will.
I will leave you with this: If you lead a monotonous life with no joy in it, you will wake up one day and realize that your best days are behind you, and you'll wonder where they went. If you lead a fun, spontaneous life, you will wake up one day and wonder where the time went just like everyone else, but at least you will know that you lived it the right way and wouldn't change a damn thing.
