Who are you?

Every child is asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Every person has a plan for their adult years, whether it is to become a prestigious lawyer or to work at McDonald's. Every person has dreams and the answer he/she gave to the aforementioned question becomes the goal they work toward. Suddenly, a young man dies at 20 years old and that question becomes irrelevant. He never had the chance to become something "when he grew up". Suddenly, "what" changes to "who" and the question changes to "Who were you while you lived?"

As a freshman in college, I have had my own goals for the future. I have spent a great deal of time thinking about who I want to be and what I want to do with my life. Then I hear of this young man's death - only two years older than I am - and the questions rise in my mind "What if I only have two more years? What if I never get the chance to grow up?" Suddenly, all those plans for the future do not matter, because there was not time for them to become reality. Suddenly, the only thing that matters is who I am today - right now, because only God knows if I will have any more than that.

When you realize just how uncertain life is, it is very presumptuous to count on the future, because you do not have the power to know how much time you have. The only thing of which you can be certain is that you have this moment, this time, now. You do not know about the next moment, just this one. You do not know about tonight, just today. So what are you going to do now? Who are you going to be today? If you want to do something with your life, if you want to make a difference, do it now! Do not make lofty plans for the future, while wasting the time you have now, because you do not know that you will have anymore than now. What a tragedy it would be if you spent the first twenty years of your life making plans for the future and suddenly, the first twenty years were all you had. Do not act badly towards others now, telling yourself that you can always apologize tomorrow. You do not know that you will be able to talk to them tomorrow. All you know is now, so act in such a way that if you don't have a tomorrow, you will have no regrets for the time you had. Maybe you did not become the prestigious lawyer you wanted to be, because you ran out of time. If you lived each day as if it was the only one you had, you will have lived a full life and made an impact on others, just as much as if you had had twenty years more. That is what counts.

It is time to change the question. Do not ask, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Ask instead "Who are you?" and "Who do you want to be now?"

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead Yesterday is a promise that you've broken Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes This is your life and today is all you've got now Yeah, and today is all you'll ever have Don't close your eyes This is your life, are you who you want to be? This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be? When the world was younger and you had everything to lose Yesterday is a kid in the corner Yesterday is dead and over Don't close your eyes This is your life are you who you want to be? This is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

(Switchfoot - "This is Your Life")