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February 16, 2010
Amy Yakubowski
What do you want to do before you die? It’s a simple question and MTV’s The Buried Life is answering it. When commercials for the new reality show were leaked on TV, I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t too interested.
After seeing other reality shows like Jersey Shore or The Real World, D.C. I thought, “Here we go, another dumb reality show.”
But I’m guilty. I stayed up on Jan. 7 to watch it.
In the show, four guys travel across the United States to partake in activities they want to experience before they die. As they accomplish their check list, they ask random people what they want to achieve before they die and then help achieve that goal. Through this “dumb reality show,” I found a deeper message.
No one knows when they are going to die. Death is a way of life. People always say, “Live like you were dying,” or “Live like it’s your last day.” But does everyone actually do that?
I always think there’s going to be a tomorrow. I always think I have 70 more years to live. But what if I don’t? What if in a blink of an eye everything changes.
These thoughts hit me as I laid in bed after the show. I thought of all the goals I wanted to in my life: jump out of a plane, travel the United States in a van, learn to surf, go to Greece, see the Grand Canyon, climb a mountain and throw the first pitch at a baseball game. Doing these activities would make me happy, right?
Yes, they would, but these are all about one thing: myself. I believe that although The Buried Life is showing we can do for ourselves, what really brings happiness is helping others in the process. The four main characters of the show are doing what they want, but taking time to help others.
At Hoban, I have come to realize that assisting others has brought me real happiness. Sure, service hours are required to graduate. But over the past four years, I’ve found myself doing more than the required amount of hours. Not because every year service hours increase, but because I want to do more.
Life is too short to sit around and do nothing. But it’s also long enough to take some time and help others.
So I have a question: What do you want to do before you die?
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