Death

In my religion, it is said that each day we spend on earth, celebrate a birthday is a day closer to our death. Death is really not something we all think about; some people believe they are immortal and have the right to do and act as they please yet it’s not true. Much as we may not know when and how death is coming for us, it is something we must all go through. At the end of the day, what you did whilst alive, the legacy you left is what counts most when you die.

The past week 5/10/11 someone who you may not take as important but an inspiration to me and so many others passed away. This was the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs. He died of pancreatic cancer a disease he’d been battling for so long. I normally don't talk about celebrities or famous people because of the superficial that is their lives and jobs but the passing of this person is really a great loss. He changed the technological world as we knew it and as a technology freak, I am saddened.

As a bonafide curious soul who is fond of killing random cats out there, I am fascinated by people's intellect and thought processes. What a person says and thinks can give you an insight to who they are and Steve Jobs was simply a great man who did great things.  I read his famous speech and aside from knowing what he went through, two paragraphs jumped out at me. His thoughts and beliefs on death and the motto he lived by, "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right."

How many times have we come across a saying that goes, 'live each day like it was your last' but never take it seriously? You read it and wonder how it is you're going to live your day like it is your last, what it is you're going to do to make it count. When no options come up, we all go back to our normal daily routines. The speech was so thought provoking and inspirational that it made me reflect on death, what it is I have done so far to inspire (or not) the people around me? I practically spent the day thinking about it. When I told a friend of mine about how I felt, she mocked me asking if I cared that much! I had to share with her Steve Jobs' speech to put my point across. She took her words back!

There has been few people that have made me reflect on death as much as Steve Jobs' did; my grandfather, Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson. All these people's deaths were sudden, no battles with long term illnesses unlike Steve Jobs. When the death anniversaries of these people come to pass, I am reminded of where I was when they passed and the feelings their deaths evoked. You may not believe this but I mourned Heath Ledger's death. I felt my heart break when I heard the news about his death and the same goes for Michael Jackson. As for my grandfather; it is coming to six years and I still find the knowledge that he isn't among us a little hard to take. I remember the last words he personally said to me and it brings tears to my eyes when I think about him so much. I end up being emotionally overwhelmed by the loss.

However hard it might be to think and talk about death, the number of loved ones we lose, it is the culmination of the lives we lead on earth. We all have to go through it whether we want to or not no matter our social and financial stature in life. What really matters is the good deeds we did while living, whether small or large enough to make an impact on the human race; it’s all that matters, nothing else.

Like Steve Jobs' said, "No one wants to die. Even the people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away."