When I was in high school, my literature teacher told my entire class that no one truly dies--that secretly, they live forever. Crazy, right? Well, not really. She went on to explain that when a person dies, they live on through the memories people have of them. That the stories told about them will pass down from generation to generation. A person is still alive as long as they can be remembered.

The Mexican culture looks at it like this (in summary): When a person die, they pass on to an afterlife of non-stop party and good time to wait on the rest of their family. However, when the last person that remembers them passes on, they move on to another afterlife of suffering for eternity.

If you have ever been admitted into the hospital for a severe reason, I bet you can remember every nurse and doctor that helped take care of you. Whether it’s something that they said, their name, or a major aspect of their character, you remember that piece of them. Think even further. Every person that you have told about your trip to the hospital and the staff that took care of yo, now knows about them. Now, even further. Every person that they may have made a comment to about your visit and the staff, also, knows a little something about the staff that helped take care of you. That means that if the staff has no one else to remember them when they are gone, they at least have every person you told to “keep them alive” when they pass on.

This can, also, be a negative thing. For instance, think of Jesse James and the Younger Brothers. They were criminals long before any of us were even born, but we still remember them.

My point behind this is that every person wants to be remembered, whether they admit it to themselves or not. As they will be. However, there is a difference between being remembered widely and being remembered deeply.

When you are remembered widely, many people may remember small, meaningless characteristics about you. Things like: “Oh, she’s the girl that bombed out of college to become a photographer.” Or, “He’s the GUY that is studying to become a nurse.”

Being remembered deeply is when you may not be necessarily remembered on some wide scale. You may just be remembered by a few people. However, these are the people that actually know the things worth remembering about you. Things like: “Hey. After she left college, she became an amazing photographer. Now, she makes thousands and thousands of dollars by taking pictures for nature documentaries.” Or, “He may have been a GUY with a nursing major. But, now, he’s a DOCTOR that has saved thousands and thousands of lives.”

So, my advice to you all is that it’s impossible to escape the craving for being remembered in some way. Just make sure that you are wanting to be remembered for the right reasons.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’d prefer the second way of being remembered. If I’m kept alive after I die, I want it to be for a reason like some little old lady telling her grandchildren about how I saved her when she was in her twenties by doing CPR when she is my emergency room. That beats being known by thousands any day.