Start | ← Life → | End
I think at some point in our lives we all experience two types of days. Type one: a day that we just wish would end. Type two: a day that we wish could last forever. Life happens in the blink of an eye; I am only 23 and I can attest to that much. I am only 23. I’ve experienced so many type one days, days where nothing seems to go right, days when I’ve lost loved ones, days when my workload seems unbearable, days when I just wished that it would end. I am only 23. I’ve experienced so many type two days, days when everything seems to go right, days spent with my loved ones, days where I immerse myself in a new hobby, days that I wished would last forever. Life isn’t easy. If we thought it was, 2020 was out to prove us wrong.
Sometimes we experience so many type one days in a row that it becomes a type one week, or a type one month, or a type one year. When this happens it’s only natural to forget that type two days exist, you’ve experienced them before, and you will experience them again. Life is filled with never-ending waves of happiness and sadness, of excitement and disappointment, of this emotion and that emotion and this ceaseless cycle isn’t a bad thing. It does mean the joy you feel on a type two day will end at some point, and that can be hard. It also means the pain you feel on a type one day will end at some point, and that brings hope.
Life is made up of days that are made up of moments. These moments carry with them emotions, and these emotions are what we can interpret as waves. These waves start the moment we’re born, though we can’t express them as we do when we get older, and they continue until we die. This is the common denominator that connects all of us; our life starts, we live, and then it ends. Most of us have a longing for some sense of direction with our lives and so we create goals and plans and for some of us this is easy, we know exactly where we envision ourselves and we know exactly how to get there. For others this is much more difficult, perhaps we have a general idea of the direction we want to go but aren’t sure exactly where we envision ourselves so we can’t know how to get there or perhaps we don’t even know what direction we’re facing now much less what direction we want to go. People of all three experiences share the common denominator. Our life starts, we live, and then it ends. It’s the in-between that is so important. We live.
We only get one chance here on earth, and it is defined by the in-between. Regardless of what direction we are heading or if we even know the direction, we live the waves as they come and we live them as they pass in their ceaseless cycle. Yet being in a ceaseless cycle of waves means it can be difficult to keep your head above water and that is the importance of the in-between, the importance of right now. Reflect on the past and find hope in knowing you made it through type one days and the lowest of waves. Dream about the future filled with type two days where you see your goals accomplished and where you will be riding high. But life is happening right now. No moment lasts forever, no matter the emotion it carries with it, we know that it will pass like a wave. Slow down and recognize the wave you are in right now because in this wave there is beauty, there is love, there is peace, there is hope. We know that our lives began, we know that right now we are alive, we don’t know when it ends.
“Don’t count the days. Make the days count.” — Muhammed Ali
