The Most Important Way To Live

If I had one more day to live, what would I do?

Many people would do the dangerous things they would usually be too scared to, like skydiving or swimming with sharks or maybe even climbing a mountain. But just as many would instead spend time with their loved ones, cherishing what little moments they have left in the company of those they have spent their life with. I am one of those in the second party, spending time here with those I love, but with it I would do something that is far more terrifying and freeing than any other option... I would use my voice.

It sounds ridiculous, but I would talk, and it would be the most terrifying yet exhilarating and relieving moment I think I will ever feel in my life. I would talk about everything, from my earliest childhood memories to my deepest regrets and my plans that I will now never get to live out. I would talk because if I do not talk, if I am not heard and my voice does not reach the ears of anyone, I will not have existed at all.

Without a voice, I will be a rock that makes not a single splash as it hits the surface of a lake. Without a voice, I would be forgotten the instant I have left someone's line of sight. Without a voice, I would have no friends, no family, no relationship that means anything. And we all want to mean something, don't we?

And so, I would talk — and I would live, even as I am dying.

Dying, to me, isn't really about death. It's about life. If you take a look at the obituaries in any paper or anywhere online, none of them are about how the individual died. Almost every single one is about how they lived, the things that they did for the people in their lives, the impact they left behind. So I treat Death as this thing that is inevitable, but it is the reason to keep living and getting your voice out there. I know I will die some day, and I also know that my voice is the best, and probably the only, tool I have to keep living.

Author Austin Kleon, in his book Show Your Work, talks about how he reads obituaries every morning to start off his day. This sounds rather morbid, but he writes that

'Reading about people who are dead now and did things with their lives makes me want to get up and do something decent with mine. Thinking about death every morning makes me want to live.'

He describes reading obituaries as a near-death experience for cowards — a way you can experience the inevitability of death while also keeping it far enough away so as not to truly put yourself at any risk, while still getting the same motivation for living.

Your voice is something you have, whether you realize it or not, and I think the sooner we all understand this the sooner we can contribute to the world in a way that is meaningful and far larger than any individual person can ever be. Talking seems like such a mundane thing, we do it all the time, but your voice isn't just to do with talking. Look back throughout history; think of the biggest names that come to your mind. They all had an immense voice, either literally or through their art or efforts in some area or another.

The best painters, writers, inventors, scientists, they all had a voice that they used. Some expressed it through poetry or through paints, while others showed their voice and passion in their discoveries about the world, and it's clear that they all lived. So I ask whoever reads this — be it just myself or anyone else — to use your voice, because you have a life that deserves to be lived. Write that story you've wanted to for a while now, upload that video or start that painting. But whatever you do, do not remain silent.

Publishing this article may be one of the first knowing steps I take towards finding my voice, because I know that I never truly will find it unless I use it first.