One day you will wish

One day you will wish:

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One day you will wish.

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Wish to be exactly where you are.

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This moment.

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The one right now.

Life will go by.

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Most of it you’ll spend thinking about the past or future.

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Worried about things that don’t exist.

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Scrolling through your phone.

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Wasting time.

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But there will be a day when you will think.

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Why?

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Why did I waste my time?

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Why did I let it go?

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Why did I get so distracted?

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Why did I get so caught up?

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Why was I so focused on something that didn’t matter?

Why did I let hate consume me?

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Why?

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Just remember that this day will come for everyone.

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Ask old people.

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Listen to them.

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Listen to their stories.

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Listen to their lessons.

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Very lucky to have my grandparents still around.

3 out of the 4.

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One passed away in 2010, which was one of the hardest lessons I had to learn.

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But thankfully, the others are still here.

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One set lives close to me.

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So much so that we grew up going there.

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Stayed over every Friday night growing up.

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For 17 years, we saw them weekly.

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Played video games.

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Watched basketball.

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Watched cartoons.

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Played on a mini net.

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Had chocolate chip waffles.

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Every weekend for over a decade.

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As a kid, I thought they were going to be around forever.

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They won’t.

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Like none of us.

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They’re starting to get older.

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Especially my grandfather.

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He’s dealing with dementia.

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He’s slowing down.

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Slowly deteriorating.

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Slowly watching his brain suffer.

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It’s sad.

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It’s also life.

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This is how it works.

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I’m so grateful I got to speak to him when he was still with it.

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Because I learned so much.

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So much about my past.

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So much about how I wouldn’t be alive if not for the decisions he made.

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The one story that sticks out is this.

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He was born in 1938.

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Before the partition between India and Pakistan.

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When India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were one country.

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Thanks Britain for ruining that.

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When the partition happened in 1947, he was on the Pakistan side.

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A Hindu who had to leave everything.

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There was a moment when he was on the train going to India when it was hijacked by terrorists.

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Religious fanatics who wanted to kill everyone who wasn’t like them.

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So they started killing people.

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He was there while everyone was murdered around him.

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He had to play dead.

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Imagine having terrorists walk around you as you see the people around you murdered in cold blood just for being born to a different religion, while you sit there as still as a moth, trying not to breathe to stay alive.

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It’s insane.

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Still is to me today.

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If not for the luck and courage he showed in that moment, I would have never existed.

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He would’ve never met my grandma.

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My dad would’ve never been born.

They would’ve never moved to Canada.

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My dad would’ve never met my mom.

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I would have never been born.

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All of these things that happened would never have happened if not for that moment.

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The moment when he was lucky to survive.

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It’s a story that stays with me.

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It’ll stay with me till I die.

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It’s a reminder of how precious life is.

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Of how many little decisions can change everything.

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But also how much those before us had to sacrifice for us to be here.

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I am nothing without my family.

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Zero.

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All of my success and achievements are theres.

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Not mine.

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But one of the biggest lessons they taught me is don’t waste your life.

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Don’t waste your time.

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Stop letting it go by.

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Life is what you make of it.

Instead of wasting your time doing meaningless things, go live the life you want.

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Go do the things you’ve always dreamed of.

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And if you don’t have any dreams, make them.

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Write them down.

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Make them real.

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Put them out there.

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Then watch as you achieve more than you could’ve ever dreamed of.

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One day way in the future when you’re bedridden looking at what’s around you, you’ll remember.

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How nice it was to be young.

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How amazing it was to be in this moment.

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The one you’re currently in.

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Don’t ever take it for granted.

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Because one day you’ll wish to be exactly where you are.

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