Some alarming news

Read the next line very carefully.
A study done by the American National Research whatever revealed that, among people in their 20’s at the present time, the life expectancy is 61 years for women and 57 years for men.
It is official, life is short.
I was once told that until 24 years-old, people flourish. Everything is developing, growing and glowing. After 24, is literally downhill. Everything starts to fall, grow to the sides, memory doesn’t work too well… suddenly, and everything is glooming. Carpe Diem, seize the day, life is now, live in the moment… how many of these clichés do we need to really start appreciating life?
How about start thinking in what really matters in life? Money… Friends… Career… and… Love…
I start with money. Since this is not in order of importance, I start wondering about my friend Chris. He is a successful business guy, great family, great wife, great musical talent, as people tell me. I never got the chance to see it. He has been too busy making money to guarantee his future. In the end of the week, with more than 50 hours of work done, even his wife misses him. How much having a good life is gonna cost him?
Then you think about your friends back home. The awful things you have said to some, the times you judge others. How good it feels when I remember silly things I used to do with friends. Here in the city, you enjoy very cool people. If you willing to live in the moment, NYC and New Yorkers can be your best partners. With their company, you can discover the most exotic culinary, tell the funniest jokes or participate in stupid contexts of who drinks faster a beer can. But, interesting enough that is not true to everybody. Not everybody thinks friends are one of the most precious things in life. I actually heard Antonio saying “I don’t believe in friendship”. I didn’t believe at the time he was serious, but this person proved to be okay without anyone. Not even when he got sick and had to leave the city.
But how about your career? If life is now, and as everywhere else in the world it takes time to get your niche in the city, can you say “yes, I’m happy as a cashier…” or “yes, I’m happy as an investor…”, or still, “yes, I’m happy spending all this money on my master’s” ? Are you really? Is this whatever you’ve been doing what you really want to do for the rest of your 20 or 30 years left?
Last, but not least… love. How much love are you getting these days? Now think carefully, because I don’t care for warm people, warm love, and warm conversations. Warm should be only your heart when you see who is calling. Everything else, in terms of love, should be extremely hot.
You gotta be sure of what you’re saying when “I miss you”, “I was thinking of you”, “I love you” and most important, “I’m looking for love” comes out of your mouth. Anything less than fervent, doesn’t count. How many sunny days have we missed hanging out by the bridge? How many nights with the most varied selection of colors in the sky have we let pass and didn’t really took someone out, just to see it?
Coming back home one of these days, I saw a Chinese couple seating in front of me. She was so angry at him. He knew, and he tried, on his own way, to make up. She never let him. I wonder what happened when they left the N train. Did they have time to make up? Or it was just too late?
I heard a girl saying the other day “I just want to have fun”, and I suddenly got what she was really saying, “I don’t want to get hurt”. I happen to disagree. Because if you don’t get hurt, you really didn’t learned.
I want everything to be intense. The love for my family, the kisses on my lips, the passion by my research topic and my living in NYC. And if the study I mentioned early is accurate, I will prove it wrong. I’ll live my expected 37 years meeting people, backpacking, and being amazed by the sky and especially loving. But I will last other 63. Because I’ll die at 124 years old.
(Dedicated to Grandma)