What really matters

During my daily perusal of other people's blogs, I happened upon a post that really resonated with me, for a variety of reasons. The basic premise: Life is too short for tunnel vision.

This online diarist, a graduate student at a competitive school, pointed out that it's easy to fixate on certain things: work, school etc. But, he wrote, although these can and should be among one's top priorities, they mustn't eclipse what's really important: those aspects of life (family, friends etc.) that endure beyond deadlines, graduation, internships and landing the perfect job that announces you've finally arrived.

It's something we're all aware of, something that's tucked away at the back of our minds, but all too often we realize our negligence when it's too late, when the opportunity to connect is gone. I don't know why we choose to do this, but we do, and sometimes we only see that we've erred after someone's gone. I don't know why we don't realize that our relationships with real live people require effort and nurturing, too, if they're to continue developing and bringing happiness. It's a damn shame, this waiting until someone's dead or has slipped away from us before remembering what really matters.

On that note, dear readers, I'll leave you, in case you have a few calls to make.