swan song…

So here I was wasting a perfectly good evening grading papers due to be submitted the next day when all of a sudden a flash of inspiration hit me.  While I was grading papers, I decided I needed the background noise so I played a couple  of episodes of the Wonder Years I was able to download off the net.

The 18th Episode of the 3rd Season entitled “Faith” was playing in the background while I was grading what seemed like the 1,000th paper (*chuckles*).  In the episode, Kevin Arnold and his 8th grade class were asked to write their Obituaries.  I was amused and at the same shocked that such an assignment would be given to 14 year olds.  Granted, it was television, but at the time the Wonder Years was on air, its target demographic wasn’t just adults reminiscing their youth, but also young people like me (incidentally, I think at the time it was showing, I was approximately the same age as Kevin Arnold).

The episode started with Kevin Arnold not taking the assignment seriously until events in his life and the world around him made him realize that there are things far greater than himself, such as family and faith.

It got me thinking… what would my Obituary read when I, uh, bit the bullet?  Would it be a testament to my “exploits? To my “search for the one”? A funny thought came to mind… could it read something like this?

“[Insert my real name here]… he dated a lot.”

I shudder at the thought that I would be known not for the sum of all my parts, but only for those parts that people saw.  But then again, what we are or who we are as individuals are what we choose to show people. So, just in case my future obituary does not capture what I think my life would be (is) then I hope you will indulge me if I write my own.

I would like to believe that my obituary would read something like this:

[Insert my real name here]

 He is truly Suigeneris… A jene sais quoi.

Short eh?  It took quite a while trying to figure out nice things to say about me.  After about 30 minuts of thinking, I realized that I could write novels of how great I think I would be a couple of decades from now… but did I really want to be known only for being this great son, brother, friend or partner? No. I would rather be known as someone who could not be completely encapsulated by highfaluting phrases.

So there you go folks.  My Obituary. My life, in 8 words.

’nuff said.

Advertisement