Saturday, August 7, 2010

This Is An Important Lesson About Seizing The Day

"Sad things: I came back for my shoes and someone had bought them. I feel more bothered than I should be. guess I should learn to carpe diem or something."

Some days I wake up and feel like SEIZING THE MOTHERFUCKING DAY. Some days I wake up and feel like sleeping the day. This is fine because our society is not set up for all people to seize all days all the time.

"Seizing the day" relies on the idea that the future is unknowable. That means that you could die in 5 minutes or tomorrow morning or right now. If you die right now, the last thing you will have done is read these words. Is that how you want your last seconds to be spent? Have you accomplished everything you wish you could have ever accomplished before you died? No. You haven't. The goal of seizing the day is to MOTHERFUCKING DO THINGS YEAH because everyone knows you regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did. It's better to try something than to spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been.

If I died right now my grave would read:

Emily Choo
[dates]
Daughter,
Girlfriend,
Unpublished author,
Employee of American Eagle

Um, LAME. I mean, of course, there is tons of shit that I have done but it's too long to fit on a tombstone. If I were to operate on the "carpe diem" philosophy based on my fake tombstone and the idea that I will die tomorrow, I would quit my job right the fuck now. Then, most likely, I would wake up tomorrow, still alive, and then I might die and my tombstone would read:

Emily Choo
[dates]
Daughter,
Girlfriend,
Unpublished author,
Unemployed

The thing about seizing the day is that humans have habits and responsibilities that lie beyond the face of "today". So how do you seize the day when you have a bunch of shit that you don't want to do? What if you have to do shit that you don't want to do today so that you can be happy tomorrow? We can't skydive every day, you know.

The answer is this (I am telling you the answer to life, the universe, and everything): 42.

Jk.

The answer is to seize the day some days. Seize the day on important days. Buy the shoes, but keep your job. Do your homework, but when you go out, make it count.

Here is some good advice from my favourite TV show 30 Rock:

Live every week like it's shark week.
Dress every day like you're going to get murdered in those clothes.

And some of my personal advice:

When the time comes for someone to write your obituary, make sure they have something to write about.

Emily Choo
[dates]
Seized the day,
most days.

3 comments:

andie. said...

this post is amazing emily.
would you ever consider getting carpe diem tattooed?
my best friend wants to.
i think it would be a huge responsibility cause most days, i'm a lazy sod.
ps. the "word verification" thing is quins you know, like tegan and sara.ha!

e. c. said...

andie.: thanks girl! i don't think i would get it tattooed. i get kinda uneasy about tattoos with words because you're espousing a life philosophy and that can change at any time.

Anonymous said...

this post totally brightened my day! your sense of humor is dead on. i was feeling bad about not seizing today, but i'll leave that for tomorrow, when i may be murdered in a fabulous outfit while gettin my shark on.