Death

It’s sad. The first time I consciously felt this sadness was when the river drowned one of my friends. I was ten.

I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I would never be able to hang out with this person anymore. The news kept me up for a few nights. Man, I wasn’t even that close to him. Does it make sense for me to feel sad? Or maybe because I was shocked and at the same time, scared as shit from realizing that could also happen to me. No, I’m not talking about drowning. I’m talking about dying.

A few years later, a fellow altar boy died. One of the nicest people I’ve met. Also died from drowning. More than 15-years later, another fellow altar boy died due to a motorcycle accident. My thesis adviser (in high school in the Philippines), an old woman who was drying rice grains on the street was accidentally hit by a car. Also, dead. Accidents – if we knew it was going to happen then we could’ve prepared ourselves for it. But no one can really tell the future, not even fortune tellers.

Family members who died due to health issues. Undetected health issues that suddenly surfaces and takes the life out of its host. Unforeseen events that we all find too hard to swallow. Again, if we knew this was going to happen then we could’ve done something to prevent it.

BUT that’s never the case. It’s almost always a mystery even when doctors can come up with a legitimate scientific explanation as to why this or that happened. Often, what we’re really looking for is an explanation from God as to why He has given them such a very difficult challenge.

I write about this because it’s been a heavy week…

• A beautiful woman, a friend’s wife, who I haven’t had the luxury to get to know well (but heard the stories of how super nice she is to others) has recently passed away.
• My grandma’s house (the house I grew up in) was flooded. Flooded to a point where she wasn’t able to save most of her stuff. It was a record high.
• A friend messages me about getting a divorce from his wife.

A lot to get into but I wanna focus more on Death because Death is probably just sitting there, right around the corner, waiting to come and get you. I don’t know. You don’t know. No one knows.

*Snap* That’s how long it takes to change the way you view life the moment you hear about someone’s death. At least that’s the case for me. It sounds cliche to “live your life as if you’re gonna die tomorrow” but there’s so much truth to it. We all know that but we don’t believe it. I know that because we complain so much about things we don’t have full control of. We bitch and bitch about things and yet we don’t do anything about it. We just bitch. No action.

Since no one really knows how long we’re gonna live we continue on with our lives doing the exact same thing we’ve been doing. We’re almost always sure today isn’t the day. Why change something if it isn’t broken, right? Wrong! Better yourself now before it’s too late. People who died due to accidents never had the chance to have that “proper departure” from the living world. It’s painful to not be able to say goodbye and it’s way more painful for people that were left behind.

Back in Grade 6, my friends and I got into the Book of Revelation in the Bible – the end of the world. We learned that it will swoop in like a thief. No one really knows when it’s coming but we know it’s coming so we anticipate it. I did. I then questioned my beliefs, decisions, how I acted towards others, and basically how I lived my whole life and how I will live my life from then on. It kept me “aligned” for a few days. However, I was just a kid so the thought of “Judgement Day” never lasted.

20-years forward, I had a new perspective towards“Judgement Day”. It is not a one-day event where the world will end. It is when Death finally decides to come to pick you up and take you to the other world. It comes in by surprise, like a thief, which fit the description I read 20-years ago. You can’t cheat Death, that’s what Final Destination reminded me of:

I’m NOT saying we should spend all our cash today and experience all the pleasure in the world (whatever we can get our hands on). That’s NOT what I’m saying. That’s a mindset driven by scarcity, victim mentality and to put it bluntly, by stupidity. All I’m trying to say is: live today by making the world a little bit better than what it was yesterday. You can start doing that simply by reducing the number of complaints you have about your life, about the world. Complaining is just a lazy way to deal with a problem. After all, I’m sure you don’t want to die mad or upset. That’s not the state of mind you want to be in when you (*knock on wood*) get into an accident. I would prefer to die happy. Of course, that easier said than done. It always is.

The world will keep going despite our departure from it. But wouldn’t it feel nice if we left the world and made it a teeny tiny bit better than what it was?

We can start today by constantly trying to improve ourselves – the better we are as a person, the more capable we are at making a change.

If you were to die today…

What do you want the world to remember you by?

What do you want to be written on your tombstone?

I feel pretentious writing this but it’s a thought that’s been residing in my head for a while. I was reminded of buying…

Life Insurance

After re-listening to this audiobook I bought on personal finance.

A lot of people will say “Duh, that’s obvious, you should’ve started as soon as you can because it’s a lot cheaper”. To my defense, that’s the reason why I kept my debts low – so I don’t have to worry about buying insurance.

I never thought it would be that important. I kept putting it off thinking that I don’t even have a lot of debt to worry about. And I keep a pretty healthy lifestyle which means, I doubt I’ll be getting seriously sick.

But all of that has changed after hearing about the sudden death of a friend’s wife. Things have changed in an instant. I hate the thought of leaving all my financial headaches to my family. That’s my responsibility, not theirs. Insurances exist to protect us even though we’re 90% sure nothing’s going to happen to us. I’ve reached a stage in my life where I have to consider not only my future but also the future of other people I deeply care about.

That said, I’m going to start looking into buying a life insurance next month.