As those close to me know, I finished up my summer term exams this week. Since those closest to me work day jobs, I haven't had the chance to get out and celebrate said occasion with some drinking and fun. I spent the week thinking about what to do with myself until my upcoming driver training came up in hopes of getting my license shortly to qualify for a co-op job in the fall, and found myself thinking about what it was exactly I was doing with my life. Thus far I have spent most of my life doin nothing but schooling, and in the past year had gone without a single true day off from all professional responsibilities (those being to school and work). The last year has been a continuous cycle from educational terms to work terms, with holidays in the midst but no time off as I got so accustomed to through the early care-free days of my life. Tonight I was given the opportunity to drink and release some stress in the stereotypical 20-something male way, went out, grabbed myself some nice steak tails at the local grocery store, fried em up, medium-rare, on the bbq and enjoyed with some good German beer. Now yesterday I sat at this computer accomplishing nothing but the passing of time and the wasting of energy with my computer, and listened to a couple emergency helicopters (actually the same helicopter a couple times) fly overhead to the hospital a couple blocks away. That helicopter was carrying the University of Toronto student involved in an accident when his solar powered car swerved across the centre line into oncoming traffic just outside of town. A 21 year old, intellectually gifted (I assume, being as he was involved with a University engineering team producing the alternattive powered vehicle) young man, not much different from myself I am convinced, except with perhaps a bit more personal motivation and direction, lost his life in an unfortunate gust of wind catching his car and making him lose control. I have myself been along the same stretch of highway numerous times with my biological father at the wheel on our way out to a bush property away from the 'city' life here in Waterloo. This thought came to mind yesterday as I watched the coverage on the local news station of an unrecognizable array of fibreglass material, emergency vehicles, and the dark blue van with which it made contact. I thought immediately that I could easily have been in a similar position as the enthusiastic solar car driver, and while he was still alive I considered the implications of living life paralyzed, as opposed to being dead. A couple hours later I found out sadly that for this young man, such contemplations were trivial. As most of the local general population I'm sure felt, I felt sorry for the young man, and hoped he died in peace with whatever he believed in in life, and felt sorry for his family. I was humbled by the thought that such things are really not as impossible as they sound.
As I sat drinking my beer tonight watching the re-run opening of the Olympics, having only casually mentioned the accident earlier in the day, I received a phone call from my mother. Apparently the somewhat recognizable minivan in the local news coverage with which the solar car had collided was none other than my father's with him at the wheel. Needless to say it was quite the sobering experience, even given that I haven't talked to the man in 6 years. It is probably a poor reflection on my character that this only really seemed to strike my conscience when it became a more close to home issue, but it really reinforced with me how much life can be taken for granted, as I spent the week in a negative mood having no way to release my post-exam stress. I was quickly struck by the notion that if I had slightly more motivation I could easily find myself on a solar car team, or some similar project, with the last thing on my mind being an unfortunate gust of wind. Now this is not some experience in which I choose to renounce my silence with my father, or make some concentrated effort to become a more motivated, productive individual; it is just a truly a stirring event, that cliche or not, makes one consider the relevance of life. Some of the biggest cliches are also the truest. Take from this what you will, but I for one am going to be taking day to day events less for granted than I have been, day to day trivial problems, are no such thing when you don't have a life to live like the day before.
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