Wednesday, November 18, 2020

If I knew that was the last time

Having coffee at Starbucks with my Bestie - 2 years back, soak in the moment of joy and rush to catch my flight back to Chennai many things were left untold. There was a belief that we will meet again. It has been two years and I still don't know when we will meet. This was just an example. I have parted ways with many of my colleagues from IITB, Mahindra etc. No one knew that the last time we met would actually be the last time for a very long time. We have the luxury of technology to message or have a video call once in a while if we are not able to meet physically. Now, what if one of us is no more and that was truly the last time you said goodbye to anyone.

I am glad if you are still with me and reading on. It may sound depressing and sad, but that's the truth. (I might use sentences and phrases you might have already read). We all know about this situation but we miss its gravity in our day to day hustle. It is a good idea to reflect on this once a week or so. It can impact people in different ways.

Knowing that the future is not so certain, you tend to be more caring and loving towards your loved ones. You become more compassionate. You will start having deeper and meaningful conversations with anyone and everyone you meet, thus leaving a lasting impression.

Knowing your own time is limited - you can either go out and enjoy your life to the fullest. You can stop worrying about the future and start living more in the present time. You can decide to travel the world. Scuba dive, skydive. You can own the fastest and/or costliest car/plane/boat in the world. You can just live for yourself, making the most of the one life that you got ads of now. Automatically you will start prioritizing the things that matter to you and which brings you the most joy. Opinions of others will have no impact on you and you will be your true self.

Knowing that our time is limited - one can decide to focus on leaving behind a legacy in his field of work. Instead of enjoying life all by oneself, one will just focus on solving real-world challenges. Serving others without thinking about personal gains. One can dedicate her life to building the most iconic cutting edge automobile or give her entire energy to serving people, serving the hungry, educating the needy, or fighting against injustice.

You can decide to be the greatest in history in your profession. It can be sports, politics, education, music, anything, and everything. There can be other paths too and I would be happy to hear it from you.

No matter what you choose - I just wanted to remind and reiterate that our time is limited and make sure you spend quality time with your friends and family.


Thanks for reading and hope to meet you soon :)