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The clock is ticking....
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| Ub3rTrancer |
If you guys have a min or two read this... It really made me think about things... I got this e-mail some time ago but i never got around to read it.
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This is all true. September 7th. "The clock is ticking...."
Written by Matt Lazzara
I don't think a lot of people sit around and contemplate their lives. I mean, people think about their futures and what they're going to do, and what they should have done in order to achieve something, but I don't think anyone contemplates their present. What they're doing right now. Everyone's heard of living in the moment or whatever, but I think very few people act on it. Myself included and that's something that I regret immensely.
Life is a finite thing. Obviously, everyone's life is going to end, but mine has a time limit. No surprises for me, and depressingly enough, that time limit is going to run out rather soon. I've never really told anyone how long I have left, or what exactly (in great detail) is wrong with me, because I would rather myfriends viewed me as a vital, volaile, rather silly human beings, but at age 21, most people don't understand or know how to contemplate the thought that someone you know, they would abandon me for more secure, lasting relationships.
So everyday, every minute is vital to me, the most mundane things are breaths of fresh air. The things that most people take for granted but shouldn't - a kiss, a pudding fight, a good long walk or an intriguing conversation - are now intensely important to me, and I think they should be important to everyone. The fact that I know I won't be able to experience these things makes them achingly more important to me, and they make me desparate to achieve them one more time.
I want to close my eyes and kiss a girl one more time; the kind of kiss that makes you feel like you're floating, the kind where you forget to do something with your hands because it's so good. I want to go camping, and lay in the grass and think how naively beautiful the day is. I want to shoot off fireworks and run away when the cops pull up. I want someone to hold my hand and tell me something nice about myself. I want to be able to read the paper and deride George W. to someone, and have them hate that with me. I want to sit on a stoop late into the night, drinking ty beer and telling stories. I want to feel alive, and not dead or dying, and think that those things - the most trivial and passing connections to the world and people in it - are violently important.
So this is my contribution to you. I'm desperately telling you - all of you- to take advantage of your youth and vitality. I hear too many people talking about college and getting ty jobs afterward. I hear too many people talking about work and how this and that sucks. , we're all wasting our lives doing things that disconnect us from everyone else! You don't need a four or five year plan, and you sure as hell don't need to worry about feeling innocent and immature again. Worry about making everyday something to talk about, and not just another blank page in your life.
I used to act like you. I had a plan. I had a future, and all that blew away, but right now, I barely have a present, and that's how I've realizewd the error of our ways. Please, please, don't get old and die, and die of cancer, and realize you did nothing with your life but make plans that never happened. Don't miss opportunities anymore. If you like someone, tell them, if you think the time is right to kiss someone, do it. If you feel like you're in a rut, don something to stupid and silly and fun. If you feel the world is ugly, make something beautiful. Stop being so cautious, some movie line said : if you take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive.
Trust me, as much as life sucks sometimes, and wow, do I know it sucks, it is still the only thing we know. It is the only thing that matters, and it's wonderful. Life is a beautiful, ridiculous, tragic disaster, but it's the only thing we have. So don't let it lie by the wayside in pursuit of crap that's barely important. People are the most important resource, and so are the relationships we build with them. I feel the pinch of that more ever now. If we could spend 400 billion dollars to cure cancer instead of building and maintaining weapons, I wouldn't have to write this. So this is, essentially, a plea. This is the most personal thing I've ever written, and I hope it reaches more people than I ever could.
Don't forget this is the only life you have, make something worthwhile out of it, and no one who you've laughed, cried, kissed, and bled with will ever forget you.
Matthew D, Lazzara
April 2, 1982 - February 15, 2004
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| disko-kandi |
i live it every day and i know what it means to live the moment
it's incredibly liberating and empowering, all at the same time!
i've never been happier..cos knowing that i'm 30, having realized this, i can live the next ~ 2 x 30yrs consciously and (will) make the most of it. some people may never come to this realization in their whole lives & they will never know what it means to be alive -unless something tragic happens. but i have ... and so should you!
tuum est!
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| Endlesswave |
| ing right! I live for the here and now, and slightly think ahead of the future. I had a "talk" with relatives who wanted me to "do something" with my life and have that "5 year plan" that's fine but I WILL find balance between that and living my life how I'm living it now...because we're only here for so long... |
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| jasmyn |
i think that we are all blessed with the ability to make our own decisions and to live our own lives accordingly. whether we choose to recognize the many opportunities and experiences out there for us is solely up to who we are as individuals and what our goals are for our own lives. there is beauty in everything and everyone around us, you just have to open your eyes to see it.
cheers. |
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| Arcticboy |
| quote: | Originally posted by disko-kandi
i live it every day and i know what it means to live the moment
it's incredibly liberating and empowering, all at the same time!
i've never been happier..cos knowing that i'm 30, having realized this, i can live the next ~ 2 x 30yrs consciously and (will) make the most of it. some people may never come to this realization in their whole lives & they will never know what it means to be alive -unless something tragic happens. but i have ... and so should you!
tuum est!
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Ditto. :)
The letter is beautifully written, but I could have used it say 15 years ago! Trouble is, it would have never sunk in then. These are things that can not be force fed to anyone, people have to make their own transition, whatever sparks the change for them. Kind of ironic that if you've never had your eyes open, you don't realize that they are closed! |
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| LiANG |
| wow! thanks for posting this. Life is indeed slipping away fast. I keep trying to remind myself that TODAY is our most precious and our only sure possesion. Today will never rise again. |
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| Crazy Serb |
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Stop being so cautious, some movie line said : if you take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive.
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That Van Wilder movie... finally another soul on this planet who took a line from that comedy and actually realized how true it was.
And just a copy+paste from a recent post regarding this topic:
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With all the conveniences and distractions of a modern society, we have become expert Time Wasters. Think not? Riddle me this. How many hours of your life are spent in front of a TV or computer? Since you have found this post, I am willing to bet that you spend more than 4 hours a day living your life through a screen. It is time to shake off your long slumber and wake up. Can't you see how the Media has succeeded in dominating your awareness, molding your mind to conform to their status quo and robbing you of your reality?
Man, I don't know about you, but I am concerned with the direction society is heading. More and more people have stopped living life in favor of watching it! How ridiculous is this? Reality TV has become more popular than reality! What is going on here? Is life now a spectator sport? Damn, no wonder people are scared shytless of being social. It has become uncharted territory for them. But hey, put them in a room with a TV or a Playstation and they are ing pros at that!
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| Silver Bass |
| Hey G you gotta come back down to oakville! We'll get drunk, light some firecrackers in peoples backyards and blast some trance. |
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| Ub3rTrancer |
| quote: | Originally posted by Silver Bass
Hey G you gotta come back down to oakville! We'll get drunk, light some firecrackers in peoples backyards and blast some trance. |
HAha PARR! I was just thinkin of u, havent seen u in ages! U r never online now days, and last time i was in oakville u were in Florida :p
Summer man, summer :D will be chillin, like the good old days hehe
lol Tatu buddy :stongue: Tatu |
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| Pettiscool |
| ^^^ Im always down for some ruckus. |
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| NightCreature |
It is true. There is just sooo much beauty in this world and most people take that for granted. Enjoy the little things in life...
Anyway, here is more good advice
| quote: | Mary Schmich
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh never mind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.
Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
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