So Go Live It
By Leroy Smith
Aside from a weekend ski trip or a friend’s wedding, January and February are the quiet months of the year. Countless reunions, infinite-calorie dinners, and binge drinking nights that surround the holiday season leave most of us prepared to slip into hibernation by New Year’s Day. Combine that with the large amount of December assignments pushed off (“Don’t worry about it now… flag it and we’ll circle back after the holidays.”), and January and February become months spent refocusing on the basics.
Family, Career, Health, Education, etc.
But the beginning of this year felt different. It was different. For many reading this, the excitement of your late 20s propelled you in to the new decade with confidence. Knowing just enough to be dangerous, with little responsibility besides taking care of yourself and maybe a significant other (dogs qualify). These are truly joyous times.
It feels like once a week, older colleagues reinforce this for me.
“27?! Wow, those are great years. When I was 27…” (at which point I tune out).
My friends and I discuss it all the time.
Max Burge (AKA “Lax” and/or “The Burglar”) referenced it in another piece, “Golden Age.”
Little did we know, the highly anticipated vacations, gatherings, and restaurant nights would come to a screeching halt in just a few weeks.
When the news of COVID-19 began to spread in the U.S., many believed it wouldn’t have any impact on their lives. Myself included. I know my Michigan State kin were ready to scour the streets of Chicago on St. Patty’s Day like there was no mañana.
But as the spread rate of the disease became obvious, there was a collective wave of people understanding that this moment is way bigger than any of us or our current plans. This is the first time our generation has faced a form of shared adversity. Everyone’s in the same boat. Building the plane while we’re flying it. Options are limited. People are spending more time with themselves than ever before. Pondering existential questions that had previously been drowned out by everyday noise.
That can be an opportunity if approached correctly. There aren’t many excuses to keep you from taking time with yourself and loved ones to think about/discuss what actually matters, and how that will drive you forward coming out of this. Life only gets busier. And for some, it’s possible that now might be the last pause button available to consider those aspirations and values. Conscious of it or not, that foundation ultimately guides the decisions we make and the people we spend time with.
Not to sound too serious or that I think reflecting on existential questions is something easy.
Far from it.
As my good pal Ryan once stated: “We’re all just pissing in the wind.” Unsure where things are headed. And I tend to agree. We each have our own series of twists and turns in life, never knowing what’s around the bend. But that uncertainty is not mutually exclusive to considering larger questions that might give you a sense of direction and purpose.
They can coexist.
When Kobe Bryant passed away in late January, every celebrity and athlete voiced their thoughts on the situation and what it meant. If you hear too many opinions, it all cancels to zero. I didn’t know what to think.
You grow up believing that Superman is not supposed to die.
You follow these larger than life figures for a number of years, never really considering that they aren’t immune to life’s inevitabilities.
Thankfully at the time, I happened to catch a ten second soundbite from Jocko Willink, a former Navy SEAL Commander who is now a motivator to many through his brief and candid advice. Not surprisingly, it was the clearest message I’d heard on the incident. No sugarcoating involved.
“Life is short… so go live it.”
Wow.
If you ask 10 people to expand on their vision of “living,” you will get 10 different answers. Right now, that vision probably feels foggy and unattainable to most. I know it does to me, uncertain when life will return to normal and if that notion of normal will be changed forever.
But human beings are meant to adapt. It’s hard wired into us. It’s pushed us to evolve.
And we will respond to that push again now.
Just keep living.
