Life just sucks. Our lifespans are short, our bodies weak, and our minds are unable to comprehend its own end. We argue about everything. We fight amongst ourselves and kill each other. Ultimately we have no control over our entire way of life. We don’t even know where we came from or where we are going — or if there will be a future.

All of us take it for granted that, because of life’s delicate nature, it has value. But what if we’ve got this situation all wrong. What if all the meaning we apply to our selves is misplaced?

Would you change your life if it could be proven that existence ends with everything you know, and there is nothing more to it? What value would there be to living if you knew for sure that life and awareness was absolutely pointless?

In the last few years, these are the questions I ask myself every morning when I wake up.

Just as much as our little family influences who I am now, these thoughts drive me to be a better person. They are a constant reminder of the obstacles that can at any moment end it all. And even though it took me almost fifty years, I’m thankful to finally care so little about all that I see, hear, and feel because now I have my own motivations to be a better human, and not just the fear of failure.