February 2026
Life is short, as everyone knows. But when I was a kid I didn't know what this meant. It was one of those quotes you kind of just shrug in agreement and continue skipping along with your day. But like many quotes, you don't know what to do with them until you experience them.
No, I've not been in any life threatening car crashes. No, I've not seen anyone die at the age of 20, but what I have experienced is the passage of time doing things I do not want to do. Which probably doesn't seem as dangerous as a car crash, but I'd like to argue that it's worse than dying.
Everyone knows life is short, but not a lot of people care, much less, do anything about it. They'll say that they'll go on that Japan trip after graduation, find a wife after they've "made it" in life, start that local coffee shop business after they've made enough money in corporate to comfortably retire, and all of this makes sense, until we remember the three words of doom, life is short.
Because the reality is you could die tomorrow. No, you could die today. Now I'm not sure how that might happen, but it does beg the question: if you died today, would you be happy with the life you've lived?
If you were supposed to travel the world, but now you can't because you died while working for a promotion, then maybe you would've taken that chance to go on holiday and experience the world for a little bit.
If you wanted to find a wife, but now you can't because you died trying to make the money to spoil her, then maybe you would've accepted meeting someone in an imperfect time of life.
This isn't to say make rapid and wasteful selfish decisions with death always in the rearview mirror. The saying life is short is a chance for you to reevaluate if what you're doing right now is really what you want to be doing right now. Because the time we have is finite, and putting things off for an arbitrary amount of time is usually the product of trying to fit in unconsciously.
Life is too short to be afraid of what others think or wait to do things that matter, so make the most with the time you have and do the things that you want to do.