Should I be afraid of Death?

Ive always believed that two things in this world are absolutely certain:
change and death. That doesnt mean they are easy to accept, though. I myself
suffer from the phenomenon known as Peter Pan Syndrome; a refusal to accept
impending adulthood and remain a child for eternity. Never fearing death, but
mocking it with my inability to age. But, only in a fairytale would that be my reality.
With growing up comes the intimidating, yet exciting addition of responsibility,
independence and opportunity. As David Foster Wallace said in his 2005
commencement speech to the Kenyon College graduates, the most obvious,
important realities are often the ones that are hardest to talk about. So, today Im
going to address the most unavoidable reality that I find difficult to talk about:
death. Im not going to tell you what happens after we die, thats up for you to
decide based upon personal belief and comfort. What I am going to tell you all
though, is that one day we are all going to perish from this earth and there is no
way to escape it. It is out of our control completely. What is in our control though,
is the life we live up to that day our bodies are lowered into the earths soil.
The greatest mistake a man can make in his short life is to not challenge
his fears. Without overcoming fear, how would mankind ever realize what they
were capable of? Our kind used to inhabit caves surrounded by dinosaurs and
now were living in overpopulated cities filled with seas of highrises and endless
possibility. Yes, we are undoubtedly a part of nature and confined to the laws of
Mother Earth, which at first may seem limited, but there is still so much we have
yet to discover. I know that there is a huge stigma behind fearing the unknown,

but in Russells Nature and Man the author enlightens us with the idea that,
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor
warmth of traditional humanising myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour,
and the great spaces have a splendour of their own (7). Russell is encouraging
us to embrace the unknown and look forward to what more there is left to
discover. There is no denying that mankind has always found comfort in fictional
stories like the Book of Job that were created to help us cope with events that
dont go as we had once planned, but perfection isnt realistic and failure is. We
must learn to get comfortable with the uncomfortable and the great splendour
that comes with the unknown because as cliche as it sounds, life is too short to
be anything but happy.
The thing about death that I find so hard to accept is that it can happen at
any moment in time. Whether it is a matter of suicide, old age, a freak accident or
maybe even disease you can never know the exact time that someone will take
their last breath. My family friend Elizabeth, who was an older sister to me, died
of something called chronic rejection at the age of 19. After defeating a case of
childhood cancer her lungs eventually failed her body. She had spent her whole
life moving hospital to hospital. It was clear that her life would be short lived, but
still when the time comes it is never something you could be prepared for. I was
in seventh grade and death wasnt something I had ever really experienced
before, so this hit me hard.
Fast forward 8 months later to one of the last weeks of that school year.
My friend Brittany and I were walking home from school one day to get slurpees

at the 7-11. She looked over at me frazzled, wondering why her mom had been
ignoring her texts all day after a weird interaction they had while she was
dropped off at school that morning. Brittanys mom had jumped off a bridge that
afternoon, dying immediately upon impact. This news was something no one
could have ever prepared for. Yeah, seventh grade wasnt exactly ideal as you
can tell, but my point for telling you those two events isnt to receive condolence,
it is to remind you all that death can come at any moment and the timing is never
going to be convenient.
In the blink of an eye my world was flipped upside down. After attending
that last funeral I made a promise to myself that every day was going to be made
worth while for the remainder of my life because on that day it became crystal
clear that my death could happen at any moment and so could yours. Even
though I try and live every day like it might be my last, I mustn't fear the thought
of dying. In Epicuruss Death is Nothing to Us we are told, The wise person does
not deprecate life nor does he fear the cessation of life (104). He is saying, we
must not despise life and we must not be afraid of death. As long as you have
lived a fulfilled life, death really should just be viewed as the last event on your
timeline. The deaths I have experienced havent fueled a fear towards my
inevitable end, but just made me realize the importance of life I choose to lead
before it.
So as we all enter this new chapter in our lives I want to leave you all with
this. Dont focus on how you will be remembered at Blair after we graduate, focus
on the memories you made and get excited for the ones that are coming. Learn

that it is okay to be selfish and take risks because adventure is out there waiting
for you. Life is an uphill battle on the mountain of experience. There are going to
be some bumps in the path, a couple detours and maybe even a dead end or
two. It is time to start taking the path that leads towards the unknown because
the unexplored areas of our lives are something we should no longer fear, but
embrace. Life is a beautiful thing that can go wasted if we spend too much time
worrying about things that really dont matter. Make this life one that is worthwhile
because you never know what day might be your last. Thank you.