A Good Life

There's just something about this song that never fails to pick me up. If I'm tired, frustrated or bored, I throw on "Good Life" by One Republic and by the time the chorus rolls around, I'm already bopping my head and tapping my foot.

What is a good life? I tried flipping through my old philosophy texts from my first year at university. On a rather ambitious venture, I decided to take a course entitled, "The Meaning of Life". Yeah, ambitious. In retrospect, I should have known that a single semester studying the works of Descartes and Dostoyevsky, among others, wouldn't teach me "the meaning of life." To be honest, I'm not sure if I've walked away with much from that class, apart from my first (and possibly only) A+ paper in university.

I'm not sure what constitutes a good life. "Good" is relative. I know that I have certain goals I want to achieve (be a realtime court reporter). I know the kind of person I want to strive to be (honest, inspiring, humble). I know that I want to leave some sort of legacy, even if it's only the lessons I pass on to my children ("Never waste food"). I want to be able to live my live fully, wholly, and at the end of the road, have no regrets. Then, I will have lived a good life. I need not have walked on the moon or herded elephants in Africa -- though that would be pretty cool. I want to say that I did everything I wanted to do. I suppose that's what pushes me to accomplish all the items on my bucket list. Some are ambitious (land frontside/backside 180), some are a little out of my hands and depend on others (Stanley Cup for the Leafs, anyone?), while some are downright daunting (stand on Kjeragbolten, join a paintball league). But I'm determined to do it all, hopefully sooner rather than later, but definitely by the end of the road.

"When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did."
-- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I hope you enjoy the song as much as I do. One day, I'm gonna go to all the places that they mention in the song, and then some, and I'm gonna make my own "Good Life" video.