Life is short. It's too short to live with any regrets holding you back, and sometimes it's easy to lose sight of what it's all really about. Every once in a great while, things can happen in your life that can sort of smack you in the face and make you take a second look at your life. For me it was just one of those days.
When I was at work today I was eating an orange, when I began to choke. One minute I was shooting the breeze with my coworkers, then next I wasn't breathing. At all. I'm kind of known as the goofy guy at work so no one believed me at first. For over a minute, which seemed like an eternity, I tried in vain to clear my own airway. As utter panic began to set in, my coworkers realized that I wasn't playing some sort of stupid joke and that I was really in trouble. At this point I don't remember much, it kinda goes all fuzzy in my mind. Never in my life have I ever felt the sensation of being completely deprived of oxygen in such a way that I truly feared for my life. If it weren't for my coworker Stephan's incredibly fast instincts, I fear to think of what might have happened. He performed the Heimlich on me and eventually the orange became dislodged from my throat.
As ridiculous as is sounds, an orange nearly ended my life. Just ten minutes before Stephan and my other coworkers were outside with me, I was all alone with 14 third graders who would have been unable to assist me. It's horrible to think about it, but had I still been alone when I ate that fateful orange, the 365 brews project might have sadly turned into the 11 brews project.
My brush with death has truly rocked me to the core, and caused me to really question what is most important in my life. I realized that I wasn't really afraid of dying, I was afraid of not living. What I mean is that in the moments after the incident, I thought about all the things that I wanted to experience in my life that I would have missed out on. I would never get to see the pyramids in Egypt, never go skydiving, never go to a world cup match, never get to marry the love of my life or have children. I'm only 25, there's so much more living I have to do before I'm ready to kick the bucket.
I guess I just forgot that this life is not promised to anyone. You can have all the hopes and plans for the future, and it can all come crashing down with a piece of fruit that gets wedged in your windpipe. I might not be here tomorrow, so I'll be damned if I ever live my life with regrets again. I've got a new lust for life that only the shadow of death could have brought out in me and just like the old cliche says, I'm going to live everyday like it's my last, because it very well could be.
Saporro had the lucky distinction of being the first beer that I chose to drink after my choking fit that caused me to reevaluate my life top to bottom. Honestly after what happened to me, I can say that while this certainly wasn't the best beer that I've ever had, but I can't remember ever enjoying a beer more that I did tonight. I guess it doesn't hurt that Sapporo is a decent beer in it's own right. Tonight it definitely hit the spot and I think I was able to really savor the refreshing taste of this Japanese lager. I enjoyed every last drop of the Sapporo and I think that it will always have a special place in my heart for the beer as being the first beer of the rest of my life. Sapporo gets high marks from me, due to both it's smoothness and it's relative ease to locate in most grocery stores. Go ahead, drink a Sapporo and as the iconic character Red Ellis from the classic film "The Shawshank Redemption" once said... "Get busy livin', or get busy dyin' ".
Kampai,
Ian
P.S. Be sure to let the important people in your life how you feel about them today, because you never know when it might be too late. =)
www.Sapporousa.com
2 comments:
Glad you're not dead, little brother.
A thousand truths here. Well said. No,VERY well said. As luck would have it, I have a Sapporo in the fridge right now. I think I'll go ahead and drink it.
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