If You Had 24 Hours to Live...
I rarely wake up to the words of a Puffy and Mase song ringing in my head, but ever since I read about Wes Leonard , life...and death...are on my mind.
16 year old Wes Leonard was the star player of his high school basketball team in Fennville, Michigan. This past Thursday he walked on to the hardwood and put it all on the line.
There is an expression reverberating amongst sports fans across the globe, requesting from their team's players to leave it all on the field, Wes Leonard did just that.
He left his life on the basketball court, a testament to greatness and the true meaning of life which many of us will never grasp, comprehend or in the least bit...adopt.
With Fennville's undefeated season on the line, Wes took the rock and rumbled down the lane for the game winning layup...ensuring a perfect record for his team.
He was carried off the court by his adoring teammates and to the roar of the home town crowd, many of whom had watched him since the basketball was not much smaller than he.
These would be the last moments of Wes Leonard's life. His enlarged heart gave out. He went out in a blaze of glory. May God rest his soul and may his family find peace.
If I had 24 Hours to Kick the Bucket...Fuck it...
I didn't get up today with the intent to preach or lecture, but as I read our forums every day I recognize a level of arrogance and self aggrandizement that I doubt exists in the upper echelons of power that many of you aspire towards.
A part of it is youth and inexperience. A part is vanity. A part is mere stupidity, propped up by high GPAs and GMAT scores...
The biggest part, however, is not realizing how good you've got it.
Not because you are or will be somebody,but simply because you got to see the sunrise today.
The important things in life transcend dollars, cents and status. Whether you've fed your ambition enough or whether your desire for further achievement still blinds you to what really matters...open your eyes.
Think about a guy like Wes Leonard and even if you are an atheist say a prayer for his family and relate to some pop hop lyrics which we should all think about a lot more than we do:
If you had 24 hours to live...just think...where would you go?...what would you do?...who would you screw and who would you want to notify? or would you just deny that your ass about to die?
Partying with Charlie
I would definitely work on a financial model.
This kind of talk always freaks me out inside. I am not afraid of death per say but I am afraid I didn't get to do what I always wanted to do. I honestly don't know what I would do in my last hours...
I am leaving for Mexico on the 9th for mission work for a couple months and I am a bit worried about all that could happen. Pray for me if you will. Thanks.
Midas, your posts are pure existentialist angst that keep me thinking, and help keep things in perspective. Thank you.
Midas, Like always a good post and the a story to give us perspective.
People just don't value life as much as they should. However, one thing i really doubt is that when having only 24 hours to live most would do all the crazy things that many of us thrive to do (all the material crap). I think it would become worthless and we'd try to dig in just a bit deeper into what we are about to lose.
Just by trying to put myself in that situation let's me appreciate shit i have more. When you know you gonna be gone i think you'll start enjoying the things you do everyday...like breathing.
:)
24 hours to live? I'd pretty much consume myself with the New Testament of the Bible and do a lot of praying.
I would fuck my gf, hug and thank my mother for everything, go to church and write something about my ideas on economics. I would watch a chapter of Frasier, and then I would go and grab a beer in a park in München where I would smoke one last cigarette listening to a few songs.
I'd spend it with my family. Cook some steaks on the grill. Maybe play some cards. Probably go to church (can't hurt, right?).
On the way to Charlie's I'd also stop by a lawyer and make final adjustments to the last will and estate instructions, funeral arrangements, and update the list of people not welcome at my last party ( if there are such).
Maybe call my family and extract promises that they will do what's gonna make their life better and happier, let them know I love them, but not that I'm about to die.
I def don't want to spend last hours with them. If they don't know, they are probably gonna be tending to their business and then feel guilty that they haven't "meaningfully" spent every last second of our time and didn't make the effort to let me know how much they truly love me - and I don't want to put them through that; or they are going to be super-excited to see me (depending on when was the last time) and then that excitement is going to be followed by a huge soul-crushing downer crash - and I especialy don't want to put them through that.
And if they know, they'll be all sad and crying and depressed, and making me acutely feel the imminence of death, and I don't really want to die inside before I'm dead.
I'd rather go on a binge with Charlie and feel invincible and be convinced that the doctors/angels/executioners/whoever-told-me-about-the-death are stupid and/or full of shit, and laugh in the face of death, because dying is for fools.
And my family would just had to show up to a beautiful funeral that comforts their pain, and deal mainly with sadness and a moderate sense of loss, without having to feel like an enormous part of their life has been ripped out or having to tend to logistics while they are still trying to adjust to the initial shock. Then get another confirmation of my love for them, and go on with their lives not feeling tormented by conflicting emotions.
I would try to just run into the KKR, Blackstone, and TPG offices, saying FUCK security, and just see these prestigious gods of the industry do their thing in their amazingly designed offices. Even if I get caught and thrown out, I'd die a happy man right after :)
You should do that on Monday and then kill yourself.
Liar. You would go in there and be begging security to let you blow the MDs in your final hours. Just look at all the threads you have created:
March Madness - Bank Prestige Edition
Fake Rolexes in banking
Best way to rank schools
And my personal favourite:
WSO should implement a "prestige ranking" - thoughts?
LOL If I had a single SB to give out, I'd give one for this brilliant detective work.
I would give my sperm to a sperm bank and try to arrange having progeny. Maybe by letting a woman having my child inherit everything I own(plus some of my parents' assets perhaps). If there's time left, I'll go around and revenge on all the people that have seriously pissed me off.
I would spend it all with my family.
so fuck being violent get stocks and bonds
LOL -- did you just quote the first Puff Daddy album? I swear I heard that line before...
After reading MMM's original post (all the way through) it makes sense. Haha, I'm still laughing that I remember that album...
Go on an assassination spree. I would kill Mugabe, Gbabo, Khaddify, Bashir and Kim Jung-Il.
damn bro you got like a hyper speed g6 to make these killing runs? ambitious, just add justin beiber to that list.
Coming from Christian background, I just wouldn't care. Doing something unusual, or crazy, in the last 24 hours wouldn't make much difference.
Spend it with family and/or sexual pleasure.
hopefully not spending it with your family for sexual pleasure. careful of that 'and'
zoov is from the South.
Come on man, let's be fair, he threw an "and/or" in there... haha
Mormons are people too, go BYU!!!
'You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test'
I'd punch the guy who said the above quote
The funny thing is, I never heard that before, so I tried to guess who said it. Then I googled it, and yep, sure enough... lol
I wonder if his enlarged heart might have improved his athletic ability ? (more blood pumping etc) poor kid though.. if i had 24 hours to live i would pray a lot.. then go to sleep 6 hrs before the deadline.. dont wanna be awake when it happens :)
I would kill myself before death comes for me. How shit...never mind.
If I had 24 hours to live I would try and find the most evil fuck I could find and try and take them out with me. I like to clean up before I leave house.
play roller hockey with my cousins, have a few beers with my cloesest friends, drive one last time in my car with the windows down and some good tunes playing, walk my dogs around the neighborhood, ask my mom to cook chicken cacciatore, shoot a game of pool with my dad, visit my extended family who are within driving distance, and write down whatever comes to my mind about my life and my more memorable experiences. in no particular order (wouldn't want to waste 45 minutes getting a DUI because the beers came before the drive)
The gnawing, unmitigated, agonizing pain, never ceasing for an instant, the consciousness of life inexorably waning but not yet extinguished, the approach of that ever dreaded and hateful Death which was the only reality, and always the same falsity.
Tolstoy, good shit.
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