If I have learned anything over the past several years that I have been working at a retirement community, it is that old people are full of great advice. I’ve gotten “life hacks” ranging from scholastic mentoring to dating advice and even the occasional tip on how to be unprofessional in a professional manor. But that aside, I recently learned some of the most important advice out of all my years there.
You see, it all began on my first shift back right after arriving home from college. I was taking the dinner order of one of my favorite little old ladies and she asked me how school went. Of course, like any college student with several more years looming in my future, I responded with “It went well, but I can’t wait until it’s all over.” I could tell by the slight twinge of disapproval on her face that something in my response displeased her. And like any elderly person, who has an abundance of time with no place to ever be, she began to lecture me on the importance of appreciating life.
She told me that I need to appreciate life more, in this present stage, rather than always want tomorrow to come. She told me, “You see everyone is so eager to move on to the next stage of their lives… (high-schoolers want to be in college, college kids want to graduate, graduates want to get married, and spouses want kids…)”
Being the naïve kid I have always been, I just replied, “Yeah, I guess” with a slight chuckle and continued on my way to put the order in.
Yet, throughout the rest of the meal I couldn’t help but think about what she had said to me. The more I considered the possibility that life was simply passing me by, the more I realized how true her statement was. I have never noticed, but ever since middle school, time has seemed to fly by and I never stopped to appreciate things at the current spot in my life.
Ironically enough, when I got home from work, I went straight to bed (waiting hand and foot on elderly people can make you abnormally tired). As part of any social conscious teenager I had to do the nightly routine of checking SnapChat, Facebook and Instagram. But that is where I found something that caught my attention. It was a short poem by an anonymous author. It read, “First I was dying to finish high-school and start college, then I was dying to graduate college and start working, and then I was dying to get married and have kids, and then I was dying for my children to grow old enough so I could return to work, and then I was dying to retire. And now, I am dying. Suddenly I realized I forgot to live.”
That poem stuck out to me like nothing has before. I never considered the fact that life could pass by so fast that when you are actually at the end of it, you never got a real chance to live. From this point forward, I vow to “live”. I want to live beyond the constraints of normality and experience everything life has to offer.
I challenge you to do the same. Put down the phones and cameras, memories are far better than those anyway. Travel the world, take chances like you never have before, and use the only life you have to actually live.
