Within my lifetime, there have been many a time that I have had to stop and think, “Why am I doing this?” This is a question that all human beings ponder at one time or another. If you truly think about it, nothing is forever. The world will end eventually, and probably not too soon, but why not live every day as if it were your last. Why just go on questioning yourself. The way I think to live to the fullest, is if you can look back at yourself and think, “Hey, if it was that day again, there is no doubt in my mind I’d do that again.” As shown in a very popular movie, that has changed worlds (well at least mine) “Hakuna Matata.” It means no worries, for the rest of your days, as said by Timon and Pumbaa in The Lion King. This phrase sums up the way that I look at my life. There are many realizations that I have gone through in order to think this.

One of the more major events in my life that has led to my mind set, was the death of my nana. My nana was in essence my second mother. She lived with my family for eleven years, which were the major years of growth for me. She guided my through the large portion of my life that I need guidance, and she still is from the grave. I remember the exact day that she passed away. It was the 11th of July 2007. The night she passed, I was supposed to sleep over at her apartment, but I didn’t. To this day, I’m not sure as to why I wasn’t there that night. The day I found out she had passed I didn’t believe it. I had been thinking within the past few weeks about how life wasn’t forever, and how sad I would be when the ones I loved passed away, but I didn’t think I would have to deal with death so soon. The realization of death and end of time here on earth, has confused, mystified, and made me spend much time thinking of what I can do to make my time more worthwhile.

Does it really matter, whether or not so and so likes you or not? Does it really matter if you got a 95 or 100 on that big test of the term? What if you realized that within your time here, small things like this, that affect our thinking and take up our time, really didn’t matter? Yes, school is important, and so is maintaining relationships to make you feel alive in more ways than the obvious, but will it really carry on? Education nowadays is corrupt. Why have to pay money, to learn? Shouldn’t education be a basic human right? And why deny someone the right to a job, if they don’t have proper degrees or certificates from things, if they can do the required tasks better than someone who has a half hearted degree from some fancy college, that their parents were able to pay for? Take a minute and ponder these questions, as I have and honestly tell my why its worth it. Society has shown that money is everything, yet your actual ability to perform tasks isn’t worth anything now adays. With the advancement of technology why do you need to learn how to do trivial activities? If I have learned anything in school, then it would be that you have to work hard to achieve what you want, but yet what you want may be different than what society wants.

My life has been changed so extremely by the things I’ve gone through, that without these major events, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I wouldn’t have been able to live my life as I do.