What If I Died Tomorrow...

Somewhere, somehow death has become a taboo. Sure people joke about it with their friends, but how would you feel about what you've accomplished in your life, if you died tomorrow?

I've caught your attention, or if you're currently breathing oxygen, you should read what I have to say. 

My Story
If I died tomorrow, would you, you reading this, notice. Before you jump to message me and say "YES! Of coarse I would!", really think about it. How often do we talk? How often do we see each other? How many days would have to go by before you "worried"? And once that worried thought came across your mind, what would you do about it? How many days would it take for you not to see me, or get a text back from me, until you showed up at my door to ask my parents where I've been?

Weeks? Months? All the while, I would've been gone, you would have never known and you would've continued to live your life as if nothing happened. Sure you would wonder where I am and why I'm not answering texts, but as soon as the thought crossed your mind, you'd move on and go about your everyday life.

I don't want this to sound morbid. I don't want you to feel pity for me. But as I write this very sentence, right now, an email came in from my University about another suicide in one of my faculty buildings. What are the odds. I think this post was meant to be shared with as many people as possible.


My Choices
This isn't about suicide, it's just about life, and death, and the choices we make. I recognize that I am a very private person. I don't socialize with many people and I like to keep to myself most of the time. I am the poster child for introverts. That being said, I genuinely don't think anyone outside of my family would know if I died until weeks, maybe months after it happened. My parents only know, and have interacted personally with, my best friend so I am sure they would let her know. But she has no connection with the rest of the friends I have, and those people will most likely be the very last to find out. So I ask you to think about how that makes you feel.

Again this isn't about you feeling guilty that you and I don't talk and text every single day, it's about recognizing the importance of the life we were given, and how we chose to spend it. I've chosen to live my life very privately, and that has meant that I don't see or talk to my friends very often, nor do my parents really know who my close friends are. That's the way I've chosen to live my life, and you may not relate to that... And that's fine because you chose to live your life a different way; the way you wanted to live it.

But what if something happened, and you ended up in the hospital, and you needed a liver transplant, or even a heart transplant. Without it you would die. The event's culminating to you now laying in that hospital bed gave you no time whatsoever to contact to anyone. The hospital contacts your parents, but it's too late, you're gone. Yes it's devastating but I want to look at the other side of this story.


Your Life
As a citizen of Canada (assuming the majority of you reading this have Canadian Health Care), you have the option to be an organ donor. It's your right. 

So if you were to die unexpectedly tomorrow and you feel, in your heart right now, that the life you lived was one that you had full control over (to some degree), why let that full life go to waste? 

Why not make more of what you have left of your life, i.e your physical body, and help someone who hasn't had the chance to live their life to the fullest. 

You were one of the lucky ones. 

You lived an amazing life. 

You made all of your own decision.

Some people aren't as fortunate They weren't as lucky. 

Why not help them?!


Your Choice
I'm a true believer that no matter what I accomplish in the time I am on this Earth, I want to help people somewhere, somehow. And this has to be the easiest way to do so.

Obviously, you only qualify to be a donor if you're not a smoker or alcoholic, so hopefully none of you fall into those categories. So what's stopping you?!

BeADonor.ca

It's that simple. A couple clicks and you've already saved at least one person's life. The person, or people, you will end up saving may not even be alive yet! They will have so much promise in this world, thanks to you. You will be giving them a second chance at living their life to the fullest... just as you given the opportunity to. 


His/Her Story
So in hindsight, if I die tomorrow, I've accepted the fact that many people in my life might not even know for months. As much as I want to care, and I want you to feel pity... don't. I am living my life the way I want to live it, and when I die, I want to help people just as much as I do when I am alive.

I am an organ donor.

If you've read until this point and haven't become a donor, then do it. Right now. And if you leave this web page not having done it (if you qualify obviously) then, with all honesty, shame on you. It's free and you have no excuse.

I want to make this world a better place, and my being an organ donor, selfishly I have the comfort in knowing that even if my "legacy" isn't anything worth writing about in the history books... maybe, just maybe, the person, or people I save, will go on to do amazing things in this world worth writing about.

I hope you feel the same, but more importantly I hope you do something about it.

Marie