“We are all just a car crash, a diagnosis, an unexpected phone call, a newfound love, or a broken heart away from becoming a completely different person. How beautifully fragile are we that so many things can take but a moment to alter who we are for forever?”

Samuel Decker Thompson

Over the course of my life, I’ve noticed a recurring theme, one that has had a huge impact on who I am as a person, how I view the world and, therefore, how I choose to live my life. The past five years have made me very conscious of exactly what it is: that our time upon this Earth is temporary. In the blink of an eye, it all could be different… or even completely gone.

For my parents, it was 0.54 seconds – the difference between their vehicle clearing that intersection without impact, and the violent collision which ultimately claimed their lives. 0.54 seconds was all the time it took to determine the difference between their life and their death.

For me, it was just one second. One second’s difference on June 5th 2021 could have rendered me completely paralyzed or even dead – or, on the flip side, stepping out of that skydive completely unscathed.

I could go on and on with you, conversing about all the “would-a, could-a, shoulda’s” of my life and the lives of my friends. And I’m sure you’d have a few chilling stories of your own. Yet, the conclusion we would inevitably reach within this conversation is the same. That our time upon this earth is finite, and that what we do with it matters.

In the blink of an eye, it all could be gone – and one day it most certainly will… so love hard and laugh harder. Do what you love to do and say NO to the things you don’t. Leave your mark upon this world, especially in the lives of those you love. Make the most of every moment, and make every second count.

#BeyondTheBoylstonLine