Today

(Morbidity warning! If you want to go into the long weekend (assuming you have Friday off) with a cheerful attitude, might want to give this one a miss.)

I have this irrational feeling that whenever I go to a hospital, someone will die. Although, if you think about it, it's rational in the sense that people are dying all the time, and they will be dying when I go to a hospital, so I'm not wrong. For the most part though, the person I'm visiting doesn't die.

A lot of people seem have an aversion to hospitals, despite the fact that without them a lot of sick and injured people would be worse off. However, for people who don't work in hospitals or the medical field, the only time you tend to go to a hospital is to visit someone who is sick, or if you are sick yourself. So it makes sense that people would develop an aversion to hospitals.

But the other thing hospitals provide is a place to rest, peacefully.

It makes me think of that episode of Scrubs, My Old Lady, where JD is trying to convince one of his patience, a 74-year-old woman named Mrs. Tanner, to start dialysis in order to prolong her life. He sits with her, reading items off a list he wrote of things that she still has left to do with her life. She goes through it with him, saying that she has done all of them.

J.D.: "Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower."
Mrs. Tanner: Done.
J.D.: Fine. "Go to the top of the Meiffel Tower."
He looks up at her.
Mrs. Tanner: Oh, now you're making stuff up.
J.D.: No, I'm not; it's right here, you can look at it!
He turns the notepad in her direction.
Mrs. Tanner: Listen, Dr. Dorian, there's not one thing I regret as I lay here right now. I'm ready. I really am.
J.D.: [flipping through the pad] You have had an amazing life.
Mrs. Tanner: Good, then we agree. Now, aren't there other patients you need to be seeing?
J.D.: Me? No, no, I've--I've been off for two hours.
Mrs. Tanner: So, with your precious free time, you've been sitting in a hospital room talking to an old lady. What about your list? How many of those things have you done? For that matter, how many times have you sat in the grass and done nothing, hm?
J.D. looks at her, unable to answer.
Mrs. Tanner: You need to start taking some time for yourself, young man. Promise me you'll do that.
J.D.: I will.

The episode makes you value your life, and it really makes you wonder if you were on your deathbed right now, would you feel like you were ready to die? As stupid as this sounds, I was feeling really down at one point, and one of the things that kept me going was that I wanted to live long enough to see the rest of the Star Wars movies (The Phantom Menace came out around that time). My life has since turned around, and there are even more Star Wars movies to live for now! Not to mention all the other things I want to do.

I also feel like this year has been pretty big for me, in terms of doing things that I'll regret not doing later. Sure, some of the things I've done have been a bit of a dud, and some things didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked (*cough* Fiji *cough*), but I'm slowly expanding my world, and I've done things and met people along the way which have changed the way I see the world. It's odd that being on a site like reddit, where opposing opinions will often be downvoted to oblivion made me realise that I also live in an echo chamber. As funny as it is to laugh at politicians for being out of touch, I live under a rock myself, but I'm slowly climbing out, and as I do, I find so many more things that I want to do.

Today is a celebration. A celebration of someone who has done so much with his life that I'm in awe. He's not the youngest _________, nor would his life story be some Oscar-bait movie, but it's inspiring nonetheless. Here's to hoping I can do the same!