Existential Crisis: My Life Contemplating Existence

Amnesia

These past few days, I have been freaking out. Why, you ask? I'm about to tell you. You may want to sit down. This one's a doozy, but aren't they all?

We've been having midterm exams at my school. (If you haven't taken them yet, they suck. The silence presses in on your ears hard enough to hurt) The teachers are stressing about how much these exams matter to our grades. Now, Frenchie, why would that trigger an existential crisis? The thoughts of the future are great catalysts for existentialness.

What I do now, the grades I make now, will affect me my entire life. What's the purpose in making good grades, anyway? No matter what we do, who we are, someone will always forget us. A month or so ago, the topic that came up in my English class was, "Can we ever forget something as bad as the Holocaust?" My answer to that had been no, because the ideals it was built on will always manifest somewhere, in someone's vicious and cruel mind.

Now, I wonder about forgetting. Is it possible to forget pain? As of now, I would say no. You may forget the experience, and what happened, but true pain leaves scars. Scar tissue may be stronger than regular tissue, but even scars can be ripped open again.

Forgetting pain may not be possible, and forgetting an ideal may not be possible, but what about forgetting someone?

Picture this:

You are a soldier in World War Two. You don't remember what side you're on, what you're fighting for, or why you keep going. Your family was killed in a bombing. Suddenly, you take a bullet that punctures your lung. You die alone, on the battlefield, terrified as to where you're going, and your consciousness finally slipping away, into nothingness.

Who's left to remember you? Your friends? What happens when they die? Who will remember you then? What happens when humanity ceases to exist, for one reason or another? (Let's not dip into religion. It offends some people.) Who will remember you then?

It's funny a train of thought like that could be derived from a teacher stressing an issue about grades. I have no solution, but I can offer a theory. Hold on to your hats.

Being remembered may be all you have after you die. Being remembered may be the reason you're alive. The only way to know for sure is to burn your name into history, for the better or for the worse. Do something people will remember. Better yet, do something people can't forget. Don't be another face in the crowd. Stand out.