You are hungry; you need to eat. You are thirsty; you need to drink. You are sleepy; you need to sleep. You are dying; you need to die. Just as a sleepy person needs to sleep, a dying person needs to die. There is no other way around it. The person seated at your right might die tomorrow, while the person seated at your left might die the day after tomorrow. You yourself might die today, worse: an hour from now. Didn’t you notice? Every time we talk about the “time of our death”, we always refer to a time in the future. We never refer to the present time. Who knows? In the next minute, a meteor might just fall from the sky and violently land here.

We never know.

“Death is a part of life”—we hear that every day. “Life without death is not life”—Uh-huh. But these things do not change the fact that we are all afraid of death. We fear death. Why? Because, for us, death means the end. And what’s worse is death comes unscheduled. It does not care if things are settled or unsettled, if things are done or not done. Simply put, death does not care.

Actually, if we try to look more into things, it’s not death that most of us are afraid of. It’s the pain associated with death. Knowledge is power, and knowledge can destroy. All the knowledge that we have acquired while living our days here on earth only made us even more afraid of death. Dogs and cats experience death, too, but because of what we know, death is more painful for us. But there is something we all need to remember. A popular quote from the movie After Earth goes like this: “Danger is real. Fear is a choice.” Likewise, death is real. It’s as real as life. It’s as real as the shoes and clothes you are wearing right now. But fear of death is up to you. It’s just like asking yourself what you want for breakfast or dinner. Unfortunately for the most of us, we forget that it’s a question. It’s a question, so it needs an answer. Unfortunately again, we are too preoccupied with our fear of death to even think about something else. We are completely missing something. And what is it?

You're all intelligent. You know it, and I’m not going to say what it is.

Someone said life is a journey. A journey is a trip somewhere. It’s like a race. The finish line is death. What else did you expect? But a runner only reaches the finish line after he or she ran through the whole track. And when he or she does, it means he or she is ready to finish. The job has been done. If death is the finish line, then what is the track?

Life is long and hard. Death is short and easy. If anything, we should fear life more than the birthday to eternity.

You are hungry; you need to eat. You are thirsty; you need to drink. You are sleepy; you need to sleep. You are dying; you need to die. But you are living; you need to live. You need a life.

Get one.