I have a friend who used to volunteer at an old folks home. And sometimes she’d ask the residents: ‘What’s something you wished you had’ve done more of in your life?’
The top two answers were:
- Spend more time with my family
- Travel
What’s the thing that truly lights you up and makes you feel alive? What makes you say ‘Fuck yeah!!’?
I ask my English students all the time what are the things that they think are really important or what’s on their bucket list. Invariably the answer ‘spending time with family’ comes back.
Most of the time though, that answer comes back mostly out of what seems like obligation.
I’m sure they believe it, but there’s no fire, no real heart, no ‘Fuck yeah!!’ behind them saying it. It’s just like they feel that that’s the safe, expected, thing they should say.
But when a student tells me: ‘I really want to go see the original painting of Edvard Munch’s The Scream in Oslo, Norway,’ her eyes light up.
So I wonder when it comes to the old folks, apart from ‘travel’ and ‘family’, what are the outliers? What are the things they really want to say, what are the real things they wish they’d done but never did?
Whatever lights your eyes up and makes you think ‘Fuck yeah!’… that seems to me to be what life’s about.
Life’s not about ‘meh’; it’s about ‘Fuck yeah’. Less about ‘Well, I guess I should do this’, more about ‘I GOT to do this.’
An average lifetime lasts 2,365,200,000 seconds. That sounds like a lot, but remember, just while you’ve been reading this sentence, about six of those have gone by.
Chase your fuck yeahs. Not your meh’s.