so why, tell me why the good die young, my old friend…

-hayley westenra – heaven

because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. and yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. how many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you cannot conceive of your life without it? perhaps four, or five times more? perhaps not even that. how many more times will you watch the full moon rise? perhaps twenty. and yet it all seems limitless.

-brandon lee

take some time to watch this, if you haven’t already :

what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?

professor randy pausch finally had to make an exit, just a few hours ago, after an almost two year battle with pancreatic cancer. carnegie mellon university lost a good academic, but more than that, the world lost a wonderful person. how else would you describe someone who, despite his own personal suffering and impending departure, shone through all that by remaining positive, and, even more, inspired and motivated so many people by displaying such an admirable and valiant attitude in the face of something so overwhelming?

so many of us in a similar situation would probably crumble, become withdrawn, morose, and catatonically await the seemingly inevitable. professor pausch decided that he wasn’t going to go quietly into the night, that he would do as much good as he could and leave behind as many marks as possible for not just his loved ones, but so many people around the world.

how many of us could pull ourselves together so well and even laugh in the face of death? something or someone is trying to kill you, to turn you into just a memory (in professor pausch’s case, it was the cancer), do you just sit there, depressed and scared and wait for it to claim you? or do you stand up and face it with all the courage and fighting spirit that you have, and fight it tooth and nail, by living meaningfully and making the best out of life? if death is going to take you away anyway, at least do not let it also take your happiness, joy, and most importantly your raison d’ etre, because doing so is akin to letting yourself die a lot earlier.

adversity brings out things in us that even we ourselves probably knew nothing about before. it is in the face of great adversity that we realise what we truly are like. many of us might tend to falter, but there are also those among us who refuse to let things get us down so easily and so fight to rise above it all. adversity might bring out the worst in people, but it can also bring out the best. it separates the truly good from the pretenders who simply attempt to imitate the good ones and believe that that is enough for them to consider themselves good. because, while the pretenders stumble, fall, and reveal their ugly sides in the face of adversity, the truly good ones shine, and come out better at the other end.

thus, even though the body begins to give up, at least not let the spirit do the same too, because losing that would be like losing everything. and there is no way that anyone would want that.

thanks, professor. just for showing us how to truly live.

"the brick walls are not there to keep us out. the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough."

"syl said, it took me a long time but i’ve finally figured it out. when it comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. it’s that simple. it’s that easy."

"it’s not about how to achieve your dreams. it’s about how to lead your life. if you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. the dreams will come to you."

-professor randolph frederick pausch