PLEASE READ!
Just to be clear, by “enjoy life” I don’t mean something bad happened to me, and I’m trying to get better. No, I think life is the best possession, and as with every gift we receive, we should use/enjoy it!
It’s a waste of it to live wishing the day/work will end soon, if you think your day is going to be a “regular, boring, routine” day, just make something of it! In work/school, go talk/work with someone you don’t know too much but think you might end up being very good friends. Interested in learning? Sign for a class! Go learn a new language. Make plans for that you have always wanted to do but failed to hear the click that convinced you. Ask someone you may find nice or cute on a date. Or just order your pizza with an abnormal quantity of rare toppings. You can find other ideas in this wonderful site, just navigate through the pages and always look at the bottom list. Tired of watching that TV Show? Go see a movie or dance with a couple of friends! Take up an interesting hobby. Start collecting something… anything (stamps, taps, a certain brand, watches, mementos, pictures, souvenirs, coins, flowers, games, movies, nice-looking trash, signatures, books, etc). Go NUTS! Go practice a sport, an extreme sport, a soft sport, chess, football, parascending, paragliding, “head-kicking”, whatever you want and are up to. Read a critically acclaimed book. Wallpaper your room. Think of something people might need and invent it! Dance until exhaustion! Listen to your (favorite) song a thousand times until you can sing it without thinking!!! SHOUT… UNTIL… YOU… CAN… GIVE… NO MORE!!!!!
.... POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS! ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT YOUR DAY CAN END ANYTHING ALIKE YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD, AND IT ALL DEPENDS ON ONE PERSON… YOU!!!!!!!!!! ....
We don’t have to show as if we are enjoying life to others, showing to them that we are “one of those that enjoy life”, we must show ourselves, we must like it, we must want it!. Think, there’s nothing coming like this later… Living in a world where you can turn from president to trash man in half a week! As intelligent beings that we are, we have turned the table. Think of cavemen! Think of you now! From hitting everyone in the head to skydiving… from fishing to pitching… from the sun, to the stars… from fire, to COMPUTERS! Evolution, the thousands of years, and especially the thousands of billions (to be short) of people that lived in them before us, and had in some way or another, made a better world, a better present, for us! Now it’s your turn, do something that can change the world in a small, but special way: become environmentally friendly, stop throwing garbage, recycle, say hello to everyone who you see on the street, share the fun, smile more often and to everyone that looks at you (so it spreads), tell a joke, yawn, think of a joke, cheer up those down, spread the joy (even if it isn’t Christmas!).
Don’t turn into one of those 40 year-olds who think “I have done nothing with my life…”, and, not only turn depressed, but also don’t realize they still have a lot of road on the way! 92-year-old women who had crossed entire rivers swimming… 78-year-old hard workers who had become town-famous for the way the do something, and have done it for many, many years, taking a place in that neighboorhood’s heart, or even my 85-year-old grandfather, who still challenges me and my family to play tennis, every summer…
I could keep pitching, about what you could (can!) do, today, everyday, what can be done in the world. Here’s a little more brainstorming:
invent, create, help, share, cook, dance, sing, work, relax, imagine, play, practice, smile, have fun, watch, change, listen, bond, give, receive, yawn, travel, accompany, power, shout, dream, accomplish, meet, taste, try, crave, learn, type, write, speak, respect, swim, joke, communicate, reach (for the sky), clean, hug, kiss, ski, snowboard, walk, realize, have an epiphany, be stunned, visit, sunbathe, paint, draw, outline, build, destroy, slow-down, win, lose, cheer, cheer up, pass, take the dog out to walk, recipe, recite, bury, uncover, reflect, prepare, sit down, stand up, run, jump, fly… enjoy…
I know it may just sound like a list of verbs, but imagine it, as (a sketch of) a list of things you can be doing right now, how many opportunities life gives us, how many doors are opened in front of us. And all I think every single one should do is simple: CHOOSE ONE
One movie I strongly recommend is “Yes man” (2008). In addition to having the incredibly funny Jim Carrey, it is a wonderful film. Watch it, and learn/try to stick to it’s basic principle on a daily basis. Try to say YES! to possibilities, YES! to opportunities, YES! to chances, YES! to what you like or may/could/would like, YES! to a world of ideas and happiness, that is just waiting for YOU to open one of those doors and flood in a sea of beauty, joy, friendships, fun and everything else you can think of!
One of my favorite songs is “It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)” (short title, isn’t it?), from R.E.M., and if you think it may be just a sad song, you haven’t heard it yet. I love it because its just… madness. Its a brainstorm of words and phrases in an almost nonsensical order, that just/simply shouts freedom, creativeness, and much more things. By the way, I have proposed myself to learn by hard that very same song (you can see it here in 43things) which you can tell, if you’ve heard it, won’t be easy at all. Just to decorate, my favorite song is Read My Mind from The Killers, which is just mind-blowing.
Now listen (or read… I don’t know), you COULD, I mean you COULD just lay down, and do the same you do every day, for the rest of your life, but… what would be the point in that? Life is (an) unique (concept) in many ways. First of all, unlike races, there’s no advantage in taking shortcuts, cheating, hurrying up, working our * to arrive earlier… There is no prize, there is no podium, but when you are crossing the last few meters, whether alone or with someone… You will remember if you were the one who went straight through Main Street to the finish line, or the one who turned in every corner, and visited all town, evaluating possibilities, choosing ways. All in all, as it is mentioned in Benjamin Button’s movie, all of us, are going to the same (unavoidable) place, but just taking different ways/paths to it. This is, no matter what you do in life, you will die, someday. But wouldn’t it be much nicer if you knew you had used the chance? What would be the use in taking the direct, sometimes easier, way? Create your own! Another way life is unique, is just… that, the literal meaning, there’s one, just one, think about that every time you feel you would just want to grab Click’s (2006) remote control, and skip forward in time. You would be older, you would have missed a thousand possibilities of becoming richer, falling in love, or visiting bizarre places, each.
(Some metaphors I can think about:)
Life is a garden, full of the most beautiful flowers, including roses, and is just that choice of wanting to cut some of the prettiest, comeliest, most handsome, loveliest ones, or just look at the occasional thorns and dismiss them all at once. Life… is a salad bar, you can stick to the regular, or try something more uncommon, its up to you. Life should be taken as a dice, you never know which face it will show, or a merry-go-round, giving turns whenever, and whichever direction it wants, or a rollercoaster with its many ups and downs (and though fearful, you always want to get on it again), or an unexperienced taxidriver, you never know where you may end. Life (or marriage, as said in The Simpsons) is like an orange, or a jar of pickles, its sure hard to get in, but when you do it will always be sweet/tasty. Life is a menu, instead of going for the usual, try something new! (but you’ll always end up having to pay the check jeje). Life is the world itself, you can live in a country, or visit the ENTIRE GLOBE.
Knowing myself, I think I could continue for hours, but I think I’ve done my point(s) as clear as I can, though I certainly forgot many things I was thinking of writing in here. ;P
Finally, I realize I have been very impolite, forgetting to present myself. Hi, I am Martin Cura, I’m 15 years old, I live in Argentina, my home country (but plan to visit most of the world), and I have learnt English at school. I apologize now for having written such a long entry while I just planned to do a 3-, maybe 4-line paragraph, and give you my reason: I don’t plan on ever mark this as “I’ve done this” It is, has been for a while now, and will be my top life goal. Thank for all of you have read this to the end, as my hands hurt a little (jeje), and if anything you’ve read reached you in any way, just remember it every time you want/need to. You’re free to copy this in any way as I wanted to do just that (spread it, my ideas and everything above), if and when you like, and this shows what has done this day special for me: to try to reach out. Even if only one of you million dreamers gets my message.
Good luck!
