By Travs Epes
It probably wasn’t in the state’s curriculum, but my tenth grade English teacher insisted we watch Dead Poets Society. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, it’s a good coming of age-type-piece where an unorthodox English teacher (Robin Williams) teaches his students to live life passionately and to never feel cornered by their strict private school education. John Keating (Robin’s character) shows the class photos of past students, and sums up his philosophy in this speech:
They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? – - Carpe – - hear it? – - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.
Seize the Desk!
Inspirational stuff. Of all the quotable material I read during high school, I always found it strange that two Latin words would stick the best. No Shakespeare or Hemingway, just a short phrase written in a dead language.
But as much as I love saying Carpe Diem, we’re not always able to seize the day when it arrives. Often, we know precisely what we want, it’ll be standing right there before us, and we’re held back by some outside force. This is especially true with big decisions, like choosing a college or picking a major. It’s only on the rarest of occasions that we’re allowed to get what we want without responsibility pulling back on our ears. This is why we should be eager to seize the few days when these opportunities do arrive.
Spring Break wasn’t that long ago, and I’m sure some of you might remember a few examples where this phrase encouraged some spontaneous activity. Do your friends want you to spend the remaining cash from your summer job on a three day cruise to the Bahamas? Carpe Diem! Does your brother want to drive forty-five minutes to the nearest Sonic, at three in the morning? Carpe Diem! Is your girl friend inviting you to her parents’ timeshare in the Keys? Carpe freakin’ Diem!
Then, of course, there are those rare moments which we know will never appear again. Let’s say, for example, that it’s 2 a.m. — you’ve spent the last six hours buried in notes, flash cards, and empty coffee cups, and now you’re finally coming down from that caffeine buzz. Then your phone vibrates. Your straight edge, straight A, best friend is on the line, and you can tell from his affectionate babble that he has just been introduced to tequila. Doing the only sensible thing, you jam on your shoes and speed over to your friend’s apartment — refusing to hang up the phone for the fear that he will pass out before you get there.
A Public Service Announcement From The Fine Print
These are all fine examples of Carpe Diem in action. Sure you got a C+ instead of the A you crammed for, but now your friend’s drunken shenanigans will be forever treasured in your memory (or ridiculed, it’s your choice). Sadly, it’s often difficult to know the right moment when Carpe Diem is the most useful. What happens when seizing today doesn’t pay off until a far away tomorrow? What if we have no way of knowing which choice will make our lives extraordinary?
College is a great example of this dilemma. When it comes to choosing a college, most people fall into one of these three groups. Some followed their friends, others picked what they could afford, and a few chose the school that best fit their long term goals.
We all had to make some form of this decision, but none of these scenarios offer any more security over the others.
You could end up hating engineering, and wish you had chosen that liberal arts school instead. Not to be rude, but your close friends might turn into irresponsible jerks once they’re uninhibited in college. And of course, if money was a problem beforehand, any college will leave your wallet lighter than when you started.
This has suddenly become quite the difficult choice. No matter how well we might understand our present circumstances, there is no way to predict future mishaps. Since we’re always in danger of losing tomorrow, why should we bother seizing today? Why not give up on the future, and just live in the moment?
If we were to truly live in the moment, we’d have pretty miserable lives. Our cars would die in our driveways, because we’d keep forgetting to change our oil. We would never think to stock up on meals at home, so we’d spend an obscene amount of money dining out. Why would anyone bother with college at all, without being guaranteed a job at graduation?
I’ll admit these examples sound extreme, but that is only because we don’t live this way. Our futures might be largely influenced by causes outside of our control, but our reaction to those uncontrollable events is entirely up to us. With time we can learn to face almost any adversity, and how we decide to react to a loss or set back is the only thing which we have full control over.
This is what it means to seize the day. We should depend less on outside circumstances, and place more trust in our own abilities. Some might think I’m getting a little too idealistic, but I’d say it’s far more unreasonable to lie around hoping that things will work out on their own. It’s impossible to accomplish anything (let alone something extraordinary) without personal action.
There’s no escaping it — life is always waiting to hand you some new catastrophe. We can’t ignore them, but at least we’ve got satisfaction of knowing we did our best to combat them. When you seize the day, it’s a punch in the face to everything in the world that wants you to quit. So even when you end up feeding the daffodils, you’ll know you went out making one damn fine fertilizer.
