YOLO: The Uneducated Carpe Diem

YOLO

You only live once. A big thanks to Drake and Tyga for this witty phrase we all love to hate. What started out as song lyrics has turned into a lifestyle.

"Well, should I really take one more shot? YOLO." "I want to go out tonight but have an early morning.... YOLO." "Finals? Nah dawg YOLO."

Obviously the association with YOLO is not a positive one. As urban dictionary defines it, "mainly used to defend doing something ranging from mild to extreme stupidity." We only have one life to live so why live a boring one?

Alright Drake I GET it.

 I don't want to spend my entire life sober or studying either. However, what started out as a lifestyle has turned into an excuse for partying college students and people with nowhere to go. You'd think with only one life to live we'd want to spend it in a state of constant growth and development. I know my dream is to someday spend my life in a moderately nice house, drive a sexy car, marry an even more sexy man, and have a job where I get paid to publish the crazy meanderings within my mind. With only one life to live, I don't have much time to squander if I want to live my life the way I want to live.

Now comes the tricky part....

How do I work towards living the way I want to live without forgetting the life I'm leading now?

I had to dig through the closet and dust off the cobwebs but I managed to find my old friend..... Carpe Diem. I'm not denying the brilliance of Drake and Tyga but does anyone happen to know the origin of Carpe Diem? It is a Latin phrase first found in the book Odes Book 1 written by Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 B.C. - 8 B.C.).

                Don't ask (it's forbidden to know) what end the gods have granted to me or you. Don't play
                with Babylonian fortune-telling either. How much better is it to endure whatever will be! 
                Whether Jupiter has granted you many more winters or this is the final one which even 
                now wears out the Tyrrhenian sea on the rocks placed opposite -- Be wise, strain the wine,
                and scale back your long hopes to a short period. While we speak, envious time will have
               already fled. SEIZE THE DAY, trusting as little as possible to the future. 

I will give you this--Horace does say to scale back your long hopes. I know that school, family, and other lifestyle choices are a long ways off for some of us. But what if we look at it this way? Forget my degree, forget my family, forget my Lexus, and forget my future marriage with Adam Levine. Today, I will go to work and make the best of it. I will pay my bills and be satisfied with what is left. I will clean my room and be grateful for the house I live in. I will strengthen my relationship ties with my family, my friends, my dog, strangers, my pillow, whatever.....
Seize the day! I encourage you to make the best of what is going on in your life RIGHT NOW. Do not waste it in frivolity and ignorance. Open your eyes to what is around you and breathe it in as if it's all you live for because the length of your life is never certain. Their lack of talent aside, Nickleback poses the question, "what if today was your last day?" I don't know about you but I hope my obituary talks about my academic achievements, my influences on other people, my beautiful friends and family, and the fabulous tattooed babies I made with Adam Levine.

The Hebrew people also have their own phrase, "And if not now, then when?" I know I don't stand blameless of the excuse, "well, I'll do it tomorrow. I mean... I have a long ways to go right? There will always be the opportunity to accomplish this later."

... but what if there isn't?

Seize the day people. Carpe the shit out of that diem and live your life the way you want to now and remember that it will affect the way you will live your life later. Be happy but be healthy. Be smart. Be wise. Be kind, gracious, and loving. Get up, get out, and do something. Be proactive. Be crazy.

YOLO
You obviously lack originality :P

Cheers to all you beautiful people. Stay beautiful and stay happy.