“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. If you don’t like something, change it.” -Maya Angelou, American poet and Civil Rights activist.
You’ve heard the typical and overrated phrase “Life is short” but what really rings in our mind when we hear it? Do we sit down to think about it or think it’s just one of those things people say it just to say it? I think the phrase means so much and should get more credit than it already does. It suits perfect as a mantra and it suits perfect as a lesson to carry with us.
How many times do we end up doing the same things over and over again in our life time? How many times do we do the same mistakes? Do we ever feel mundane about our daily life choices and do we think of doing things where we can change those feelings? Life is so much more than doing the same things in our life and it may seem like sometimes we don’t have a choice. Being in the same places and being stressed under our traditional duties as humans, surviving and progressively working each day, it can take a toll with ourselves. The truth is: we do have a choice. Choices aren’t easy to come through but sometimes, choices can help us free our minds and keep ourselves in peace.
The choices I’m talking about is choosing to love this life you were granted with. This life right here, right now while you’re sitting and reading this and breathing, only comes in one lifetime. You need to understand that you have the ability to do things that will make you happy and to try for things you always wanted to do. Some things you really want to do in life may require your money and your time, it’s normal, but if you’re committed to believe that obtaining to this dream will change your life, your mind, or your beliefs for the positive, I don’t think it’s wrong. I believe everyone should do things that will set them to the right direction or at least they believe it will. It might mean taking a road trip of your life, choosing to move and settle elsewhere, volunteering outside your country to help the unfortunate, studying something you were always interested in for college, or trying something completely outside your comfort zone.
Life, without a damn doubt, is short. Anything, in this moment or months from now, can alter your life. For example, people that find out they are suffering a terminal illness might feel it’s the end already and that this mentality of knowing it’s the end and that everything feels hopeless can impact the choices they will make. People might choose to not do anything and let their illness slowly take their life away even while just seeking treatment or they can make themselves feel invincible with their deteriorating health. That’s what 91 years old Norma Jean Bauerschmidt did.
Ms.Bauerschmidt ran a Facebook page called “Driving Miss Norma”, where she gets to post and share photos of her own travels. At 91 years old, she was a traveler and she instilled that traveling was going to make her live the life she wanted, even if she was facing a terminal illness. She was diagnosed with uterine cancer and was told by her doctors that no treatment like radiation and chemotherapy was going to treat her cancer. After the doctor did give her a choice of where she would like to proceed with treatments, she decided to “hit the road”. She decided to go on a road trip of her life with her son, daughter-in-law, and their dog. She crossed and slept in 75 locations in 32 states and rode in a RV for almost 13,000 miles.
This kind of spirit that Ms.Bauerschmidt had was inspiring. And even though I haven’t heard about her story until recently when I discovered it randomly appeared on my Facebook timeline, I loved knowing there are people who know that even in their dying days, there is still more life to live. Sadly, she passed away a year after her adventures and soon there will be a book on her adventures and on her life. Having lived 90+ years old might not seem like it was short but life itself is grand and never short. There’s so much to do on this wonderful earth and we have that choice to take advantage of it.
Waiting to do things or saying “oh I can wait to do that later” may never reach that stage. People often find losses of others in unexpected times and people are so limited in the time they have, it can all be inevitable. We should never stop giving love to others and teaching others love and what it means to appreciate journeys. If there is anything you want to do, it should be now. It should be planned out. It should be a positive impact and widen your horizons. Make connections with people and find connections with yourself in places and people and things. Immerse yourself in cultures and joy. These goals and dreams you aspire may require resources but when you get to them, you’ll gain richer resources that you can’t find but within yourself; those can be finding depth in your soul and your purpose in this life you live.
This is why I created this blog in the first place. I wanted to record my adventures and the places that life takes me to. I wanted to share a piece of my existence on here and remind myself the memories I have created. I find myself often bored or stressed with school work, especially starting over again in a new college, that I let myself relax with this adrenaline I have for blogging and sharing this to anyone who can find inspiration for themselves too. This is what makes me happy.
Time is also ticking. We’re constantly growing each day, even if we don’t notice, we’re getting closer and closer to another year, to another age. You’ve heard of the saying “time flies” because it’s true! Eventually, we might say to ourselves “I’m too old to do this or that”, and while some things are not and you’re never too old to learn anything, it’s a normal feeling we can have in ourselves and can hold us back from pursuing things we always wanted to do. But sometimes I believe it does matter learning to figure out to do things now or just going for it now while you’re healthier or have more time to spare before you find yourself too busy to do these things.
One important point to consider is that we really shouldn’t judge others on some of the choices they make. If someone wants to go somewhere or do something that might be a competition among others, you know they are trying to find their own destination. That’s what life is composed of: full of trials and errors. Along these choices we have, we learn a little something in each inch of the way. So what I’m saying is do whatever it takes to make you feel complete. Life is short… and amazing and mysterious and you deserve to treat this one life you have with the life you can shape on your behalf.
