yolo? (2-14-12)

Throughout my adolescence I've heard of all kinds of excuses to justify wreckless fun, but none as cliché and irrational as the rapper Drake's now famous motto, "YOLO: you only live once," (It's hard not to be harsh on this phrase to begin with due to the number of times the song "the motto" is played on the radio per hour.) Although it does sound appealing at first, I refuse to succumb and live by that flawed philosophy. You see, the premise to this statement is valuing an unpredictable life, and considering the fact that we are all mortals. With that being said, "y.o.l.o." has been used to justify actions way before Drake's song came out so by no means am I trying to scapegoat him, but he is pushing it hard so it is fair that he at least gets mentioned hahaha. Seldom, if ever, do we know when, where, or how we are going to die, all we know for sure is that death is inevitable. This solid truth is the foundation of the "you only live once" mentality, yet I still think this way of thinking is absurd. "I don't know how long I'll live so I'll have fun now, and party hard," are some of the things I've seen people write on facebook. I happen to think that because my life is unpredictable and because I don't know when I'm going to die, I must value it more by taking care of myself and being prudent. Just because I only live once doesn't mean I'm going to challenge the dangerous rigors of life; sometimes it's better to choose our battles wisely. If, no, when I have to face difficult situations I'd rather know they're not self-inflicted. It's ok to have "fun" and party here and there, but when it becomes a priority or an obsession, that's when I consider it a problem. The crazy thing about the whole party scene is that the obsessions I've witnessed all had a pattern. Friends and acquaintances of mine all started by saying what I'm fond of saying "It's ok to have fun here and there," so they would party occasionally. Unbeknownst to them, they would later fall into an abyss of wreckless fun and they would later try all kinds of drugs. So when I say it's ok to have fun here and there, I'm conscious of how dangerous that phrase really is.