I read a piece yesterday. Which really means a lot to me. I wrote it in search of trying to find the true meaning of life. That may sound cliche but life should not be taken for granted. The writing is called The Destination. It reads
"Deep inside ourselves, lie our thoughts, hopes and dreams. We see ourselves on a long trip across country, with several pit stops along the way. We're traveling by car. Taking the backroads across America. We travel through scenic highways, traveling along from coast to coast. Along the way, glancing at cattle grazing in distant pastures, taking in the smoke spilling from power plants, getting a taste of the rows of cotton and corn and wheat, exploring through flatlands and hidden valleys, being mesmerized by city skylines and discovering the beauty of the small towns.
But uppermost our main focus is our final destination. Soon our car will pull in to wherever we are headed. And once that day comes, so many wonderful dreams of ours will come true. So restlessly, we speed through the journey. Looking at the GPS, counting the miles and trying to get there as fast as we can.
Thinking "Yes, when we reach the destination, that will be it!" we promise ourselves. "When I’m eighteen I’ll go to college. . . I’m going to win that promotion. . . I’m going to start a family . . . I’m going to buy my dream car. . . . I’m going to retire in the Caribbean"
From that day on we will all live happily ever after.
Sooner or later, however, we must realize there is no destination in this life, no one
place to arrive at once and for all. The journey is the joy. The final destination is an illusion.
"Relish the moment." Instead of counting the miles and rushing through the journey. Take a step back. Be yourself, spend time with the people you love, make new friends. Do crazy things. You only live once, so live everyday like it’s your last. Life should be taken one day at a time. The destination will come soon enough."
What do you guys think? How do you feel like should be viewed? Do you feel like your living up to your potential and living everyday as if it's your last? If not talk about what you can do to improve your life overall.
I thought that your reading was really great. I agree that you shouldn't rush things in your life. You should take time to "smell the roses." I think we are distracted by numerous things in our life that we forget how important things are. I am one of those people that wants things to happen already, which I know is a bad habit. But I am going to do my best to break that habit immediately.
ReplyDeleteThe other day I was "stumbling" and I came across this quote that said "When you are stressed about your job, just remember that one day you're going to die." When I first read it, I thought to myself that it was a bit harsh. Then I started to really think about it. We waist so much time being stressed and trying to get to the "final destination" that you are talking about. We don't realize the small things that are important. One day we are going to be dead and none of the things that stressed us out so much will matter. So like you said, live everyday to the fullest.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to live everyday to my last for me because I'm a big planner. I plan ahead so i cant really live like there’s no tomorrow. I do like to take risks though. It’s a bad thing but if a challenge is presented to me, I usually take it. I think it’s more correct to say live every day to the fullest. I always make sure that at least once a day, I do something that makes me really happy. Otherwise my days would be extremely boring. People I know back at home sleep all day, even on weekends. When I tell them things that I get accomplished every day they don't even believe me. I feel like people who waste their days all regret it. I enjoy being young. I already wish I would've enjoyed middle school and high school more. In college, I want to look back and say I was successful. I am having the time of my life in college. Everyday I'm presented with a new opportunity or idea. I love living my days to the fullest.
ReplyDeleteI believe that for the most part I do live in the moment. I work hard to achieve goals for the future but I also work hard to achieve smaller goals on a daily basis. I am not one of those kids who just sleeps after every class or has nothing to. Part of the reason I joined a sorority is to keep myself busy. There are always events coming up I can help with or meetings. I also just started volunteering at the boys and girls club. If I am in my room for more than an hour or two I start to go crazy. Sometimes I think I take on too much but that's just me. I love to do everything I can and I usually don't stress too much about it. I plan ahead and I remind myself if I can't do anything to control something then let it go. There is no point in stressing over such simple things in life. At the end of my life I want to look back and say I did not what if.
ReplyDeleteI really like what you had to say. Reading stuff like this always gives us a reminder that we shouldn't be in such a rush for tomorrow. It's funny cause my friend and I were just talking about how he always plans his future out and he wants to stop because you really don't know where you're headed. Yeah, you have an idea and you have your goals but who knows, one day something could happen to you and it could change everything you planned your life out to be. I try to remind myself to take in each day and make sure I've done the things that make me happy because if you don't, then I think you're just living each day as a waste. We need to make the most of each day and live each one like its your last.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this. I agree 100% with the idea of living every day like it was your last. obviously we don't do it every day, because i know if today was my last day id be throwing a party and doing all kinds of "stuff" lol. But yeah the basic idea of seizing the day and enjoying the little things is really nice. I hate when people plan out what their doing in 8 months 4 hours 56 minutes and 6 seconds from today. Those people just live stressed out and i truly feel bad for them. Its important to have goals and knowing what you want, but nothing is written in stone and sh*t happens so you never know what turn your life might take.
ReplyDeleteI think we should live life as it comes at us. Like you said, there is no final destination we are trying to reach in our lives. There are only small goals we are trying to reach. As we try to achieve them we create memories along the way. If you only focus on what is to come in the future, when you get there, you might end up regretting your past. I don't want to graduate college and regret not doing something or not having fun or not taking opportunities as they present themselves. Yes, I do want to have a good future, but you can only look ahead positively if you're happy in the present.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should not rush life and savor every moment. I remember that I was in such a rush to move out of my house and go to college. I could not stand living at home and I took it for granted. Now I wish I would have appreciated my time at home when I was there. I think it is important to focus on the present more than the future. Everyone should keep the future in mind but not let it take over their lives. Sometimes I don't think that I am living my life up to it's full potential. I have turned down different opportunities because I was afraid of what would happen. I need to take more chances, we only live once.
ReplyDeleteI definitely don't live every day like it's my last day here on Earth. I take very many things for granted, something I really aspire to change. I keep having this big mental picture of how great my life would be if only I could be this and this...it's taking away from my happiness right now. I believe a lot of us do this. I'm not sure why, it is almost like human nature. Unless someone has first-hand witnessed someone's life being taken away, most people just go through life with this fog over them. Like they won't be satisfied until they reach their overall goal. I try really hard to obtain that goal, meanwhile pushing everything else important to the side, treating them like garbage. I'm going to work on living life more simple!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that we should not rush to get through life. I especially believe that we should live each day as if it were our last. I never fully understood the meaning until my unfortunate event, but know things are becoming clear to me. I don't ever want to miss out on one or opportunity or experience to grow. I certainly have goals in life but I want to live on the way to reaching them. I want to die knowing that I live my life to the fullest. I do not think that there could be anything more sad that sitting on your death bed wishing you had done certain things.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog that really pushes our minds. I believe that we need to split our approach to life to both views. I definitely think we should enjoy life and all its great moments. However, if we just spend life just enjoying it we won't accomplish any goals or proceed further in life. I know many people in high school who didn't work hard and just had a good time. Many of them stayed at home and went to community college. With that being said if we only focus on the other approach we will end up as workaholics that never enjoy life. Everything in life requires moderation.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh. Just as I was about to post my comment my internet freaks out, so I have to start over...so mad. I really liked the post and I agree with it to a point. It is very important to appreciate the journey and not just the destination. However, I think it is important to strike a balance between working toward a future goal and living in the moment. We need to be responsible about our future yet be eager to put living in the present above all, especially our the future. Finding a balance can be difficult, but I think that it can lead to true happiness. I also think that we need to be open to new experiences because it can ultimately lead us to a different goal.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alex, this is great. Not only is it a great piece of writing, but it also paints a very vivid description for a metaphor on life. I think life should be taken day by day. And although having a plan is great, you should leave some room for change. Because chances are, you WILL be thrown a curveball at some point in life. You just have to know how to hit it. I think you have to be stupid one time to be smart the second time, because our life experiences are what define us.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should live our lives knowing that nothing is promised. Everybody thinks they're invincible until they're dead or close to it. I believe that all of the distractions of life try to keep us from remembering this fact. We will all eventually die. There are reasons that we are on the earth and we are all given a short time to accomplish them; and yet so many fall short. So many of us waste our lives chasing illusions that don't matter at all. Remembering that you can die at any moment for any unknown reason helps keep our priorities in check. And to be quite honest, mine are terrible. Thanks for reminding me.
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome piece of writing. This really just got me thinking about a whole bunch of supernatural stuff. This is extremely well written and definitely got your serious nature across. I don’t think living everyday like it’s your last is a good idea at all though. If today were my last day I wouldn’t spend it studying for all my finals; however since I heavily doubt today is my last I will indeed spend it studying. Sometimes you have to look towards the future whether it be for pleasing or disturbing reasons. You have to plan for the yelling you’re going to receive when you tell your parents you wrecked the car. Or sometimes you have to stay healthy for the championship game in your basketball league. You can’t always live everyday like it’s your last because then you’re unprepared for the likely future.
ReplyDeleteI definitely believe in living in the moment and enjoying it. The best people around you are the ones that love you and vs. versa. You should spend as much time with them as possible. I believe that while you set goals in life and you should achieve them. You should also achieve other things and maybe even go beyond your goals. No matter how much you try to plan for the future you never know what is going to happen. "The only thing constant is change." So if you hit a speed bump in your plan just go with it. I promise if you are determined there is another road to achieve your plan or that new road will lead you on an adventure of a life time that will make you even happier than the plan that you had in mind.
ReplyDeleteI agree, we should all live each day like it is our last. We should take chances and do something stupid every once in a while. I agree with Emily, we all stress over things that wont matter when we are dead. I know that I personally do that a lot. I seem to always be stressed over something, big or small. And I am trying very hard to stop being like that so that I can enjoy everything in life. I just seem to run on stress. I rarely stop working. Once I finish one thing I find something else to do. Since I have gotten to Tallahassee I have tried to set aside at least one day where I can just relax. I am trying to enjoy the little things instead of stressing over everything. I believe that we should all just relax sometimes and not worry about what we have to do next week or next month. We should live in the moment.
ReplyDeleteI also agree. People get so worked up on having a schedule and having a perfect plan. It is impossible and takes the fun out of life. People always want to be older. They want to be in their "prime." It is ridiculous because they should treat their whole life as their prime. Everyone dies and that is why we should cherish every second of life. We should not try to speed it up because it goes quick enough. We as people aren't here on earth that long, relatively speaking. So we should make the best of life and enjoy the ride.
ReplyDeleteThat reading was great, and it didn't come off as cliche or anything of the sort. I completely agree with your perception of life. I think we all move to fast and never stop to enjoy what we have. I know I've been guilty of this before. What'd important is that we all realize this before we're too old. We need all the time in the world to enjoy what we have.
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