This I Believe

Victoria Goy

Tim Sisk

Comp 1. 4th period

11 December 2015

Value Life

2 people die every second, 172,800 people per day. That’s an abundance of deaths, grieving families and friends thinking about their loved ones everyday, regretting things they didn't do or say when their loved ones were alive. One out of those 172,800 people on June 24, 2009 was my father. I am one of those family members, grieving over uncontrollable situations that occurred, regretting the things I didn't say or do with him.

“Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more,” Virginia Woolf. This is one of my favorite quotes because most people need an eye opening event, like a death, that encourages one to live as if it were their last. I believe that life is a precious gift and we shouldn’t let it go to waste. A few summers ago, students my age used “YOLO” or you only live once; this saying itself is what I believe, but the way it has need used isn’t. There’s an old latin saying “Carpe Diem quam minimum credula postero” which means “Seize the day, put very little trust in tomorrow.” It was first use when the advice given by Siduri to Gilgamesh, telling him to forgo his mourning and embrace life. Now don’t think I’m telling you to go party, get drunk, and make babies. I’m saying you need to go out and do something you love. Don’t waste all day inside on the couch binge watching some netflix show that will still be there in 60 years when your 78 and can’t leave the house because you just broke a hip and are on bed rest.

“My father didn’t teach me how to live; he lived and let me watch him do it.” I thought this quote by Clarence B. Kelland would be appropriate because of my father. His first job was being a Vans