In this life, an amazing thing happens. We are born.
Our parents stand there, looking at us as we come into this world. They cry. They laugh. They hug us. They shake friends' hands. They hug each other. They smile. They go through moments of fear. They become afraid of not doing something right. They worry they'll end up bad parents. They watch us grow. They make mistakes. They watch us make mistakes. And they see our lives change in front of their very eyes.
And in the end, there is one thing that is absolutely certain to happen after we are born: we are all going to die.
Now that sounds extremely morbid, kind of disappointing and I know damn well depressing. And it should be. Because in reality, after we are born, we grow up. We enjoy (or don't) our childhood. We live our lives. We make friends. We date. We have relationships. We go through good and bad times. We get jobs. We struggle with our lives. And in the end, only one thing is absolutely guaranteed: we are all going to die.
Our parents are excited. Hell, we're excited. Even if we're too young to know it. We're in this world. We get to see the light (that's not a religious thing by the way). We get to see the lights in the hospital room. Then we see the lights in our house. We see the lights in a school gym when we get older. We see the lights in hotels that we stay in when we travel.
Hell, it might be a religious experience, who knows. But in the end, we hear the stories about the light at the end of the tunnel. There is a song by the band Vertical Horizon that says the light is starting to fade. That's what happens when the end is near. And no matter whether we live for five years or one hundred years, one thing is guaranteed to happen after we are born: we are all going to die.
Now you can sit there in front of your computer, read this story and say "Why the hell am I living? Why the hell am I even trying? I'm going to work. I'm going to sleep. I'm going to eat. I'm going to have a relationship. I'm going to be bored. I'm going to be angry. I'm going to be sad. I'm going to be happy." But it doesn't matter, because we are all going to die.
Now the choice is yours. You can sit back on your ass and just wait to die. You can be a lazy bum, not go to work, not own a house, not have kids, not have a family, not find happiness, not be married to someone who bores the shit out of you, or not be overly happy every single day of your life. You can sit there and never have sex, never eat a Twinkie, never go out with a girlfriend, never play a game of cards, or never even walk naked the rain. You can have an attitude of "Why should I bother?" but either way you're still going to die.
I'm at a point in my life where I'm fitting in everything I possibly can. i spend a lot of time with a couple of my best friends. I spend time watching movies. I spend time officiating sports. I spend time finding things that make me happy. I'm no longer sitting around miserable, in a house where nobody talks to each other, there is no friendship, there is no relationship and there is no happiness. I'm going out and finding my own place in the world. I'm not going to sit around and have the attitude of "Why the hell should I bother?" It doesn't matter.
What you do in your days is up to you. How you choose to live your life is up to you. You can wake up tomorrow, be angry, pissed off and want to throat punch someone. You can just look into the sky and say "To hell with it. We're all going to die. Why should I even try?"
Or you can wake up with a great attitude, be positive, go out of your way to put a smile on a stranger's face, do something good for someone you don't know, change someone's world, pay it forward, find a new girlfriend, find a new boyfriend--hell, date both of them for all anyone cares. But find yourself. Look for your place in the world and do what you want to do. Make yourself happy.
You can sit around in misery, pissed off, angry and upset. You can hate the world. You can hate your neighbors. I don't give a shit. You can hate me. You can just spit on the sidewalk, quit doing what or who you were doing and just have the attitude that it doesn't matter. The choice is yours, but either way, we are all going to die.
Have fun with that. Me? I'm going to enjoy happiness. I'm going to enjoy life. And right now, I'm going to sit in front of my computer at midnight and enjoy a Twinkie, because I don't care if we're all going to die. I'm just not ready to go yet. So I'm hoping God puts it off for a few more years. I have some things I want to do. People I want to spend part of my life with. Places I want to go. And yes, Twinkies I want to eat.
So my attitude won't be crap. I'm not going to sit here and pissed at the world and pissing on the sidewalk, yelling and screaming that we're all going to die. I'm going to enjoy myself and do just the opposite.
Live.