On Sunday, I was struggling to pick an idea or subject to tackle for this edition.
I considered all sorts of topics and issues, but nothing clicked until I saw the headline: NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna had died in a helicopter crash over Calabasas in Southern California.
When I first saw it, I went numb. For a good five minutes I didn’t speak, I didn’t move: I simply tried to process what I had just seen.
To know that one of the greatest athletes of my generation, a man who lived his life inspiring and teaching others the “Mamba mentality,” was all of a sudden dead at the age of 41 due to a freak accident, really hit me in a way other celebrity deaths have not.
Then the more I thought about it, I realized there was a lesson to be learned in this tragedy.
Life is perhaps the most unpredictable thing we as humans deal with on a daily basis. Life will have its highs and its lows, life can end within a second, or it can end in 60 years. We simply don’t have concrete answers for what it has in store.
That’s why it’s important to make each day count. In our daily routines, we tend to make it a habit to get caught up in the drama life brings; we get caught up in the stress and responsibility of our jobs, our families, our social lives and more, and we forget about the simpler things that are a part of everyday life:the adventure, the beauty and the wonder we don’t acknowledge.
As humans, we have an obligation to ourselves to live each day like it’s our last.
While you can’t live by the creed of #yolo so to speak, maybe on a day that one would consider ‘bad,’ you take a walk down the street, or go to your favorite coffee house and get your favorite drink.
Maybe on a day where you receive some bad news, take a drive to your favorite hangout spot, or pick up the phone and call a loved one you haven’t talked to in a while; you’ll enjoy it and get as much benefit from it as they will.
Or, if you seem to be stuck in a rut, get away for a bit, take a vacation, seek an adventure, do something you typically wouldn’t do otherwise.
If you know a student who is overwhelmed by exams, projects and papers, be the one to make that day special for them; invite them to lunch, study with them and generally be there as a friend. It will go a long way for you and them.
This may seem like I’m just ranting and raving, but included in all this is a message: make each and every day count and live it like it’s your last, because you don’t know when it’ll all come to an end. Why waste the time worrying when you can spend the time living life to the fullest?

MICHAEL GUIDO
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