I think a lot about death now.

This job has me thinking about death…a lot. I’m sure some of my friends have possibly noticed a difference in me. The nature of this job has you thinking about death. For one it is the reality of the job. The job raises the chances of you dying a very nasty and very violent death. I’ve had to think about the fact that there may not be enough of me left to bury and I think that would be horrible for my family. People that I work with tend to talk about it more and it is part of the culture. Thankfully no one at my company has been killed or injured while in service in Iraq and I more than anyone want that tradition to continue (especially while I’m there) but, the reality is that something can happen.

On the other, hand this has been a golden opportunity. Most young people don’t think about their own demise when you do have an opportunity to think about it, it can give you great insight. For me I started thinking about how have I lived my life. How have I treated people? Was I good to them, bad to them? Did I bring joy to their lives? And the big question was, how could I be good to people and best utilize the rest of the time I have on this earth?

The way I see it your life is only important to you. In the grand scheme of things ou are nothing more than the sum of your collected experiences. Your experiences, while they may have been shared with others, ultimately are only important to you and will die with you. What is important is what impact did you have on others. You won’t be remembered for what you said; you will be remembered for what you did. I know my friends and family are uncomfortable with me discussing death and especially my death so I don’t mention it. It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.

I’m good at keeping to myself and dealing with issues on my own. I do advise people reading this to get a will and/or living will. Get one ASAP it’s not that expensive but, it can be the real difference in preventing your child from going into foster care instead of your brother’s house or having your property tied up in probate. You are probably more valuable than you realize and the more prepared you are in life the better prepared your family and friends will be in your death. Do them a favor and tell them how you want things to be handled they’ll will have enough on their minds when you leave them. Over the last three months I have come to terms with the eventuality of my on demise and I have to say once you pass that fear of confronting it you can become liberated. Once you see for yourself that you only do this life thing once you will spend more time focusing on the beauty of today.