September
17, 2002
immortality through achievements:
this month's entry for the if
project
Listening to: Jack Johnson - Rodeo Clowns
Reading: Partners In Crime by
Agatha Christie
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If your life could be remembered by the
entire world for only one reason, what would
you want that reason to be?
What would you like to accomplish or achieve that will make the world speak your name
centuries from now?
---
For one thing, if I'm going to be remembered, I want it to
go beyond the name, and beyond the accomplishment. Most people don't remember who invented
the toothbrush but they use it everyday, and most people know of Thomas Edison's
inventions but not as many remember Thomas Edison.
Now, what would one need to achieve to make one really remembered? The first thing that
came to my mind... writing, music, or art. Like Shakespeare, Van Gogh, or Mozart. People
would not only remember and treasure your work, but would take the time to reflect on the
more biographical and personal aspects too.
Now, what personal satisfaction would I derive from being known all over the world for a
very very long time?
Maybe if I could make a difference... but that's what every young hopeful bites their lip
about before they turn jaded.
Immortality in this sense... isn't something I would strive to achieve, I guess. At the moment, I might be too young to reflect, I'd probably be perfectly content slipping off the edge of this world as easily as I came into it, when accomplishments aren't necessary to be treasured by close friends and family.
But then again death disregards the age factor. So right now, September 2002, thinking back on the one and a half decade that is my life so far, there is nothing of me that would be poignant enough to deserve centuries-long international acclaim.
But at least I have something to show for. My friends, family, and people that knew me would have my sixty-odd works of poetry to remember me by, half of which are the true-beginner's juvenilia, half I love dearly, and some loose writings here and there. There's also my journal which could pass for typical teenage ranting.
If people took some time to recall, I hope
they'll find moments where I made them laugh, or strike a chord within, made them see
something, or proved something that might have escaped them all this time. But things that
go unwritten tend to fade though, and blur so badly that eventually they'll have trouble
recollecting my voice, or my laugh, or
how I made them feel.
I want my classmates to remember me as the
radically different one, the one who was never satisfied with how the school worked and
refused to learn from those grossly-unqualified teachers. The one that loved writing with
a passion and always wanted to break pass the norm, and never carried any type of
prejudice. If they remember, and they uphold all my classroom beliefs in the classroom,
who needs centuries?
Most likely people like Sylvia Plath, Jorges Luis Borges, or even Tupac just gave their
all whenever they could. I wondered if they ever thought of their posthumous fame when
they wrote. I wonder if Shakespeare knew he would be on people's lips, hearts and pencil
tips centuries after his death.
But you know what?
I don't long for their fame.
I like the principle they had probably lived by then. What they focused on was their present day. So if you make your current life worthwhile, a famous future will be guaranteed, right?
And as long as I'll always matter to the people that truly matter to me, I'm as famous as I need to be.