What is living?

The fictional story that describes my thoughts on life

I was reading quite cheesy poetry on a quite cheesy poetry website and a question posed in my head.

“What does it mean to live?” 

When you first you read your like “Har-har-har, this idiot asks stupid questions.” (Har-har-har is your laugh)

But seriously, for humans I think it means like breathing, remaining healthy. But you would consider what you’re doing right now ‘living’ right? You’re sitting, or standing, reading this page and understanding it, not just breathing and digesting your lunch or something. So living is more than just being alive. That may not make sense, but here’s an example.

If you’ve ever met someone who is a real go-getter. Most people have this friend, acquaintance, and if you can’t think of anyone that person is probably you. This person enjoys taking chances and doing crazy things without thinking of the consequences. (If it helps you identify them, my mom calls them the stupid ones). I had a friend like that her name was Lindsay. She constantly would do crazy things, if she really liked someone then she would go up and talk to them, and she would say things straight upright. 

She was a daredevil, loving any stunts she could do. She loved zip-lining, and although zip-lining wasn’t a dangerous sport, she had a flaw. She was terrified of heights.

But for some reason she enjoyed adrenaline of it.
One day I asked her why she wasn’t afraid. She replied with a quote by John Wayne. “Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway.” 

I continued to explore this subject by asking, “So you’re still scared?”. She answered, “When haven’t I been scared? Life is scary. I feel like I’m only truly living if I’m defying it.” I remember laughing at that and tell her she’s pretty weird and she just smiled. 

At the time I didn’t realize exactly what her words meant, but she had another flaw. She had the uncanny ability to take things too far. She had bipolar depression, and she took anti-depressants to counter that.
One day she took to many, and it killed her. She was only 15. No one really knows if she did it on purpose, and her dad deeply denies it, saying she was getting better. I don’t know and frankly I don’t want to think about it. 

At her funeral, everyone was crying, and I just remember those words she said to me, “Life is scary. I feel like I’m only truly living if I’m defying it.” I remember bursting into tears and sobbing along with her friends. 

What I learned from that is, living is not meant to be breathing. Living is defying. Living is everything but sitting there on the ground just being. 

And if you’ve finally thought of your go-getter friend, ask them why they do what they do. 

I’m sure it won’t be like Lindsay’s answer, but I know it will be because they’re obtaining something, some kind of satisfaction for defying and being different from others. 

Life is scary, but defying life is scarier, but defying life is also living life. 

Reviews

[Alucard6336]

The only thing worth seeking in life is love. That is the meaning of life: love.

Power does not matter if you seperate yourself from mankind, for you'll be without love.

[Abby L.]

Huh, I forgot to mention that part in my rant/story/thing. I am a strong believer in love and I would like to say I try to be an example of love. I completely agree! Life without love, is like a bird trying to fly without wings. Like it's completely refusing it's huge advantage, so stubborn and prideful. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

[Alucard6336]

Eloquent words. :) cheers mate :)