Life isn't short

This is probably a controversial opinion, and one I may end up disagreeing with down the line, but what the hell.

Right now, I don’t think life is short.

I agree with the sentiment behind the statement; that life is short. That we should try to capture as much value, love, fun, and laughter as we can while we’re here, but I disagree with the fact that life is short.

Yes, in the grand scheme of the universe our existence isn’t even a blip.

But to you, your life will be the longest thing you’ll ever experience. So to say life is short seems a bit silly to me.

I think a better lens to look at life through is that we only have one go, and more specifically, we only have one go at each bit of our lives.

You will only be 17 for a year. When you are very young there is a short period where it’s socially acceptable to soil your pants (although you might get another crack at this when you’re very old).

Looking at it this way makes me want to make the most use of each bit of life that I have.

I suppose the more negative way to take this might be that if we only get one shot at each bit of our lives there is immense pressure to make each piece as wonderful or perfect as it possibly could be.

There are always negative takes on things.

Isn’t this one slightly better than “I’m running out of time before I die”? Maybe.

When I was growing up I was very practical, pragmatic. I didn’t drink alcohol until I was 21. I would work full time during school holidays and most Saturdays.

I didn’t have a boring childhood, but I don't feel as though I had the best possible teenage years that I could have had.

For the last 4 years or so I’ve been thinking a lot more about the type of life I want to have — I don’t want to leave anything on the table. The last year has only reinforced and expedited this thinking.

I’ve sort of boiled most major decision making down to asking myself one question.

Am I going to regret not doing this?

If the answer is yes then I will almost always do whatever it is I’m questioning doing. This has led to some questionable decisions, but true to it’s ideology it has not led to any regrets thus far.

But untrue to myself I have not always gone with the regret free decision. I'm still working to get there.

I suppose a lot of this comes back to wanting to be the most authentic version of myself. The absolute best people i know are their most authentic selves. Or at least they appear to be.

They wear their emotions and their quirks on their sleeves.

There are a lot of foggy reasons in my head why I want to be authentic but that's a think-write for another day. I have unregrettable things to get to.