At times, it’s seemed as though life contains an endless supply of days.

I thought this for sure when I was younger. It didn’t matter how long I held a grudge or how long
I waited to do something I wanted—there would be an unlimited pool of other opportunities. At
least, that’s what I thought back then.
Maybe it’s a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, the moment when you realize life
happens now and that’s all you’re guaranteed. It doesn’t really hit you when you merely know it
intellectually, like you know your ABCs, state capitals, and other concrete facts.
It hits you when somehow you feel it. Your health declines. You lose someone you love. A
tragedy rocks your world. It isn’t until you realize that all life fades that you consider now a
commodity, and a scarce one at that.
But maybe that’s irrelevant. Maybe living a meaningful, passionate life has nothing to do with its
length and everything to do with its width.
At times, it’s seemed as though life contains an endless supply of days.

I thought this for sure when I was younger. It didn’t matter how long I held a grudge or how long I
waited to do something I wanted—there would be an unlimited pool of other opportunities. At least,
that’s what I thought back then.

Maybe it’s a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, the moment when you realize life happens
now and that’s all you’re guaranteed. It doesn’t really hit you when you merely know it intellectually,
like you know your ABCs, state capitals, and other concrete facts.

It hits you when somehow you feel it. Your health declines. You lose someone you love. A tragedy rocks
your world. It isn’t until you realize that all life fades that you consider now a commodity, and a scarce
one at that.

But maybe that’s irrelevant. Maybe living a meaningful, passionate life has nothing to do with its length
and everything to do with its width.