♫ at your funeral i was so upset, in your life you were larger than this
I've been listening to this song for some days now, and... it got me thinking a bit about life. Before you start reading this entry, you might want to check out the lyrics of the song - which is Signs by Bloc Party - here. I suggest that you read the comments, too, because they explain the meaning of the song. They were very useful to me, considering I'm not English native speaker.
Anyway, this song got me thinking. About life, people, the relationships they build.
You see, we member of the theater group are doing a play called Our Town. It's a play about people who live in a small town and their lives. It's divided in 3 Acts, but we're doing only Act I (called Daily Life) and Act III (Death) - Act II was supposed to be Love & Marriage.
In Act III it shows Emily, the main female character, while she's being buried. She then joins the other souls that rest in the cemetery. They've not moved to the next world yet. They're waiting there. They need to let go of their past lives before they can move on. They're slowly but surely achieving their goal. When Emily joins them, she still feels like she's part of the world. She can't let go of her life. She is given the chance to go back one last time and she takes it, even though the other souls tell her not to, that it isn't wise. So, Emily chooses to live her 12th birthday. She knows already everything, though - she knows the future, but she has to pretend she's 12. But she can't take it. Even though it's her birthday, even though her mother and her father are there, she can't take it, because time passes very quickly and they don't even have time to look at one another. That moment is very sad, because she then realizes just how much time she's spent without fully enjoying her life, even though it was a simple one.
This song is about something among that lines. To me, at least. It's about how we can't seem to enjoy our life to the fullest sometimes - or people, for that matter. Has anyone of you ever thought about it? I've thought about it before, but that's the first time I've written down my thoughts. There's a saying - Live every day as if it was the last day of your life. I don't think many people live their lives that way. I certainly don't. It's not our fault, either. We are always told to go to school, graduate, go to college/university, graduate, find a job, get married, have kids - and so on. I guess, it's just the way we were educated. We were born in a world where mostly everybody has this kind of life, so we think it's the way life is supposed to be. Maybe, if we were born in a society where having a normal life would mean never get married, or have pets instead of kids, we wouldn't find it strange at all, because we were grown up thinking that that's what life is about. In some parts of the world, people live a very different life from ours, which they consider normal, but maybe some of us don't. Maybe they think the way we live is just plain weird, just as some of us may think of theirs. It all depends on where you were born and the way you grew up. In the world there are many different ways of living life, but the question is - which one allows you to live your life to the fullest?
...maybe none of them.
So, the best thing to do is just to enjoy as much as you can, even though you know that you're not living life to the fullest. 'Living life to the fullest' may also have different meanings, depending on the people. Some may say that you're living life to the fullest when you're always happy; others may tell you that you just have to smile once a day to live your life to the fullest; for other people, living life to the fullest means doing something unexpected and exciting, something that you want to do, or just want to try for fun.
I think that I'm not currently living my life to the fullest. I'm still 17 years old, so me saying that is probably normal - I mean, how many teenagers feel like they're living their lives to the fullest? I will, though. I have goals I want to achieve, and once I've achieved them, then I'll be living my life to the fullest. Right now, the only thing I can do is just to live peacefully and not create too much trouble for myself - but that's not all.
I have to enjoy every little moment, for once I finish high school, once I leave this small city, there will be no more moments like the ones I'm living now.
I think that's part of 'living life to the fullest' - enjoying every single moment of it, even though you still have to achieve your major goals. You'll achieve them, eventually, and then you'll be living your life to the fullest - but, until the moment you can say, 'I did it', until that moment comes with all the joys and tears that it brings - you just have not to worry too much about it, and just live life as it is right now, day by day.
Laugh until your stomach hurts, cry until you fall asleep, sing until your throat hurts, scream until you have no more voice, be angry at something or someone until any hard feeling is forgotten - enjoy every little moment, because that's your life, too.
Anyway, this song got me thinking. About life, people, the relationships they build.
You see, we member of the theater group are doing a play called Our Town. It's a play about people who live in a small town and their lives. It's divided in 3 Acts, but we're doing only Act I (called Daily Life) and Act III (Death) - Act II was supposed to be Love & Marriage.
In Act III it shows Emily, the main female character, while she's being buried. She then joins the other souls that rest in the cemetery. They've not moved to the next world yet. They're waiting there. They need to let go of their past lives before they can move on. They're slowly but surely achieving their goal. When Emily joins them, she still feels like she's part of the world. She can't let go of her life. She is given the chance to go back one last time and she takes it, even though the other souls tell her not to, that it isn't wise. So, Emily chooses to live her 12th birthday. She knows already everything, though - she knows the future, but she has to pretend she's 12. But she can't take it. Even though it's her birthday, even though her mother and her father are there, she can't take it, because time passes very quickly and they don't even have time to look at one another. That moment is very sad, because she then realizes just how much time she's spent without fully enjoying her life, even though it was a simple one.
This song is about something among that lines. To me, at least. It's about how we can't seem to enjoy our life to the fullest sometimes - or people, for that matter. Has anyone of you ever thought about it? I've thought about it before, but that's the first time I've written down my thoughts. There's a saying - Live every day as if it was the last day of your life. I don't think many people live their lives that way. I certainly don't. It's not our fault, either. We are always told to go to school, graduate, go to college/university, graduate, find a job, get married, have kids - and so on. I guess, it's just the way we were educated. We were born in a world where mostly everybody has this kind of life, so we think it's the way life is supposed to be. Maybe, if we were born in a society where having a normal life would mean never get married, or have pets instead of kids, we wouldn't find it strange at all, because we were grown up thinking that that's what life is about. In some parts of the world, people live a very different life from ours, which they consider normal, but maybe some of us don't. Maybe they think the way we live is just plain weird, just as some of us may think of theirs. It all depends on where you were born and the way you grew up. In the world there are many different ways of living life, but the question is - which one allows you to live your life to the fullest?
...maybe none of them.
So, the best thing to do is just to enjoy as much as you can, even though you know that you're not living life to the fullest. 'Living life to the fullest' may also have different meanings, depending on the people. Some may say that you're living life to the fullest when you're always happy; others may tell you that you just have to smile once a day to live your life to the fullest; for other people, living life to the fullest means doing something unexpected and exciting, something that you want to do, or just want to try for fun.
I think that I'm not currently living my life to the fullest. I'm still 17 years old, so me saying that is probably normal - I mean, how many teenagers feel like they're living their lives to the fullest? I will, though. I have goals I want to achieve, and once I've achieved them, then I'll be living my life to the fullest. Right now, the only thing I can do is just to live peacefully and not create too much trouble for myself - but that's not all.
I have to enjoy every little moment, for once I finish high school, once I leave this small city, there will be no more moments like the ones I'm living now.
I think that's part of 'living life to the fullest' - enjoying every single moment of it, even though you still have to achieve your major goals. You'll achieve them, eventually, and then you'll be living your life to the fullest - but, until the moment you can say, 'I did it', until that moment comes with all the joys and tears that it brings - you just have not to worry too much about it, and just live life as it is right now, day by day.
Laugh until your stomach hurts, cry until you fall asleep, sing until your throat hurts, scream until you have no more voice, be angry at something or someone until any hard feeling is forgotten - enjoy every little moment, because that's your life, too.