Final Notable Quotable of 2011: Live A Life You're Proud Of
"For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again. " ~Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Well boys and girls, it looks to be about that time. Tick-tock goes the clock and this year comes to a close, just like all the others before it. This will be the final post as well as the last Notable Quotable of 2011, and I wanted to share it with you.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one of my favorite films of all time now, chokes me up every single time I watch it. This particular monologue is powerful indeed, and more or less encapsulates everything that I have told you about over the past few months.
Each year passes, and we get older and older. Each day goes by, and you're just a little bit more tired than you were the day before. Along with each day that passes, that's one more day you've spent not doing the things that you wanted to do with your life. Just as he said in the quote, there are no rules to this thing. Even though society and other social structures say that, "You have to do X or Y this way," you'll come to realize how often that is NOT true. There is no great secret path to success in life; The truth of the matter is, every single person on the planet is still trying to figure it out one day at a time, just like you. Some of them will admit it, others will not.
It's a brave new world every single day. The world of yesterday is not the same as the world of today, and today will definitely not be anything like tomorrow.
Tick-tock.
The world is such a wonderful, fascinating place isn't it? You made it this far; Let's go a little further.
When you wake up tomorrow, I want you to wake up and realize that the eyes that you are looking at the world with have never existed before. They're brand new, a little older and different than the ones you had last year. The world you see before you is different than the one from the year before; it's a world filled with new possibilities that you haven't yet explored.
I don't want you to spend another day of your life being unhappy and unfulfilled. Get up and go DO the things that you want to do with your life. Do you want to write? Don't wait for NaNoWriMo, don't keep waiting to write that story. Just go write it, put your words down, and then put it out there. Don't make excuses for the world to leave you unfulfilled. No one but you can realize your vision.
And this applies to anything and everything. I don't care what it is. Do you want to sing? Go SING. Sing your fool head off. Sing like no one is listening. Do you want to dance? Go do it, dance like you should be embarrassed, but aren't. Go and do everything in your life worth doing, for you. Because at the end of the day, whether you believe in a deity, a god, the spirit, or even believe in nothing at all…
…We're all going to end up in the same place. In the ground. And there's nothing that can stop that. We can delay it, but we're all going to get there at some point.
You don't want to wait until those final moments, and all you can think about is all the things that you DIDN'T do. You've made it this far, you deserve to be happy. I believe that you deserve to be happy. Craft that life that you can be proud of, one that you can wake up and smile to.
Have a fantastic, safe, and Happy New Year.
~Oliver
