Stretching the lifeline

By Delaney Smith.

Walking through the cemetery and noticing the different headstones, for me, is a surreal experience. As I read all the names and quotes on these cold stones of the people who are put to rest here for eternity, I start to wonder. I wonder what their lives could have been like, how their loved ones remember them, and what they did to make their lives important to the world.

One thing that really stands out to me are the years that are engraved just below the name. It has the person’s birth year and the year that he or she died, with only a little line in between. That little line represents everything that that person did with his or her life.

That line is their legacy and every memory that they left behind with the people they could not take with them. It’s every birthday, every broken heart, every little smile and tear drop that happened in their lives. This represents all of their time spent in this world. We only get to stay here for so long, so why waste a single second that we have been blessed with?

As teenagers we tend to focus only on ourselves and our futures, which can be good at times, but what about others who are not as fortunate as we are? We center our lives on petty problems such as a bad grade or a broken heart. Spending so much time and energy on these trivial issues that seem like such a catastrophe to us at the time, but on a larger scale are not of any real importance.

These moments are nothing that we are going to look back on at the end of our lives and give much worth to. However, just a few moments of our time spent on something with a greater meaning, such as community service or just giving a hand to someone who really needs it, can change someone’s life forever. This gives us self pride that we will give worth to in the long run. It also can give other people a better opportunity to change the world in anyway that they are able to.

Making this a better place for others can give our short life some real meaning in this world and we can be remembered for it long after our timeline ends. People are remembered and immortalized for their acts of kindness and bravery that they accomplished in their limited time on Earth.

People throughout history have earned and achieved the status of American heros for the things that they did with their lives to help others. These men and women also helped to change the future, making it into the society we have today. Everyone has the potential to make a real difference with their little line. What will you do with yours?

 

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