DEATH AND ITS EFFECTS

I want to begin by saying that we hold the destiny of our future in our hands... until someone robs us of that promise when they take our lives. Arise from where they were lurking and ambush us. That's roughly what happened to a fellow student last night, I'm yet to find out the details.

Its funny when I start thinking about death, this time it was really scary. It's the news of Eric's death that got me to thinking, including how I received the news and the things about life and death that I 'discovered' (from a book I was reading) preceding this event. I had travelled back home so I wasn't in campus. I received a text that I read just once and couldn't get myself to read it again. It was short and to the point, there's got to be a universal layout for writing bad news cuz this text had a horror connotation to it. There is something about how it was formatted that instilled fear... grief... so I called, as if to confirm. Or maybe that's why I called. Hearing it was even harder, confirming it only made it more horrific. It was true.

First thing I thought was; life is short. I mean, I knew him! It was like a wake up call that one day I too am going to die and it doesn't have to be in old age cuz that could have been me. I can die even tomorrow... or now! I started thinking, how aweful it is when you come back home just to be told the person you talked to yesterday ain't breathing anymore... a person you knew and loved. But death is not a mystery, its part of life. You are born and you die, right? People die every day, we don't even notice until its our loved ones.

Just last week my roommate travelled all the way to Naivasha to attend a funeral service, his cousin had passed. He had been instructed not to miss by other living relative. The cousin was a she, a mother, a wife... basically advanced in life compared to us.. him. I listened how he explained to us what happened and why he had to travel the following day, so casually.

"My cousin passed."

That's it. And no one even asked what had happened! I did, after a long pause. To me, there was something amiss. I suddenly got scared. People die and they are forgoten.

When Eric died, the only thing that scared me is that I knew him. But when we hear in the news that two people died in a road accident. We think in our thoughts; those are not so many, what about the people who knew the two? Even one life is worth saving. At least let's recognize life's worth.

The Afterlife and what death means... all I know, I don't want to be scared of death, that's what I keep saying. That's what I want to achieve, I want to embrace death when it comes rather than fight it. I want my last thought to be- I lived a good life. But I want to die old due to natural causes.

THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE

This has been inspired by another blog I read 50 things you should do before you're 50. I decided to come up with a list of my own.

1. Organize a crazy house party at my place.
2. Direct a movie
3. Be rich
4. Write a book, have tried but I'm always lazy to just put my mind to it and finish
5. Have kids, still not decided on which gender I prefer for a first born. Mmhhh....
6. Go for a road tour with a bunch of wild friends, with no clear knowledge of where the destination is.
7. Make a record song
8. Get a tattoo, piercing no.
9. Get on TV for any reason, I have been on TV before though. I just want to do it again!
10. Get on radio
11. Buy a hydraulic car. If I can't at least the car needs to be pimped
12. Start a magazine company
13. Organize a big family re-union, we don't have that in our family
14. It won't hurt to be president
15. Fall in love
16. Plant a garden in my back yard
17. Own a pet, definitely a dog.
18. Drink the most of all available beer brands in the market
19. Cross the border
20. Forget Chinese, I want to learn Kikuyu
21. Eat some of those funky foods, like lobsters
22. Buy my mom a house, it doesn't have to be expensive
23. Learn to write with my left hand. This is underway
24. Go camping
25. Visit a museum
26. Get on board a cruise ship. Still thinking if traveling in it would be cool.
    
27. Learn how to use a gun. No, just for fun. I like the sound of it when it's being loaded or assembled
28. Drink and drive, I'll probably do this last because every time I attempt it I just end up spilling my drink!