The Importance of Life

When we approach challenges in life we have a tendency of becoming overly fearful of failure and even when success is more probable than not we still find ourselves petrified by the ideal of it. Oftentimes I've sat back and looked at my life wondering the same things over and over again. It's a rat race of expectations and in order to be considered a productive member of society there is a mountain of things we must attain or else we are labeled less than worthy by our peers. Yet when we look at the reality of what is actually going on around us we begin to see that the one size fits all ideology of the American Dream is not actually a one size fits all notion in the least. Why should we continue to vie for something we cannot be, or will not be when we can take the proverbial bull by the horns and direct it toward what we should be and what would truly fulfill us?

Its just like this scenario: say a woman with cancer has been given six months to live and in those six months she meets the man of her dreams who then marries her knowing she will not be there forever and knowing full well that one day he will have to bury the woman he loves.

Some people might say that was a waste of his energy and that he just set himself up for a heartbreak he knew was inevitable, but others would look at it as a bittersweet beautiful love story that showed the true depth of human emotion.

Say the same situation were reversed and a man was given such little time to live and he decided that he had met a woman who was everything he never knew he always wanted until it hit him straight in the face. The girl falls in love with him, and he starts to feel something for her to but he refuses to be with her because he knows she will suffer that loss once he is gone. So the young woman's heart breaks because in her mind she is thinking that his illness, and his lack of faith are the truth disease and not the illness that is killing him. Because she knows that she brings a smile to his face and a flash of hope to his heart, but he won't allow her to be his because he always fears. So his own fear keeps him from living a life of happiness even if it is shortlived.

This is the error of human nature, and the beauty of it as well. When we become so engulfed with what the world expects from us that we fear living and fear those things which actually matter. Does a diploma actually matter when you're gone? Will your credentials hold merit in the hearts of your loved ones? Or is it really that memory of the soul within each of us that actually makes an impact?

Dreams are wishes our hearts make they say, but I think they are visions our brains want to make a reality and reality could be as beautiful as a dream if people would start to look around themselves and appreciate this moment. Tomorrow is no guarantee, the past is usually full of misery, and right now is a present with those who you cherish most. Never forget that.