wake up calls.

My friend got a call this morning saying she needed to fly out to DC and say goodbye to her dad. He has had cancer. She flew from Duluth this morning, and will be returning back to school knowing that her dad will be gone, just gone, in the next few days.

Not a lot makes me cry. I found all this out on the way to dinner tonight, and ended up breaking down in the dining center. I hate that.

            It does not matter if you know death is coming or not. Really, in the scheme of things, death is always on its way.

            There has been a lot of death in the past 12 months. It is one of the hardest things EVER to see good people going through losing someone important to them.

            I had a dream a couple months ago that my own dad died. The only thing I couldn’t stop saying was, “you were supposed to be there for my wedding.”

            Not one person in your life is assured a tomorrow. If you go to bed thinking anything along the lines of “I should..” or “I want..” or “I wonder..” you need to change something. I’m guilty of the same thing; a few months ago, after the four girls from NDSU got in a crash, I typed couple pages with one line each dedicated to every one of my friends, as well as some people that I wish I knew better, some that would be shocked to have been mentioned. I’m too scared to share it- the title of it in my documents is “If I Die.” Sad, I know. So, I’m not even following my own advice.

In reality, all of these people deserve to know what they mean to me, and I should be able to acquire the guts to tell them all. But that’s exactly why people don’t do it- it’s NOT easy. It puts you outside of your comfort zone, it forces you to get all serious and sappy on people, and, quite frankly, it forces you to put yourself out there. However, today, April 17^th, 2012, might be your last day, ever. On the other end of the spectrum, today might be the last day for your cousin. That kid you graduated with but never got to know. Your brother. Both your parents. You. Do. Not. Know. And that is literally one of the scariest things in this life of ours.

            You need to remember you are going to die. This is the only way to dodge the bullet of the thought that you have something to lose.

Sometimes when I look around, all I see are people that have it so good and don’t even realize it, they don’t even know how to appreciate a thing WHILE they have it. And that is just so hard to watch.

            Treat others kindly. Eat healthy. Get enough sleep, get good grades, find love. Why? Cause you only live once. You only live one time. You have one body, treat it right, respect yourself. You only have one family, do NOT take advantage of that. You only have one life, 100 years to influence, to impact the lives of as many people as you can. Treasure your life, and treasure every person IN your life. Nobody promised you a tomorrow, don’t be arrogant enough to think you’ll get one.