Chasing the Feeling of Feeling Alive
Think about the time in your life you felt most alive. Were you breathing in the scent of the ocean while the waves crashed under your feet? Maybe you were spending time with loved ones around a campfire. Or perhaps you were even reading a book in your favorite corner with a candle flickering in the background. If you’re fortunate, it is pretty easy to think of a moment in your life where you wished time wouldn’t budge — a moment where you stopped dead in your tracks, almost lost your breath, and thought to yourself, remember this feeling.
For me, it was back in 2013. I was walking home from my internship at the Late Show with David Letterman and as a writers’ intern, there was one day a week where I would stay later than the other interns which resulted in me venturing home alone.
That particular day, I decided to walk through Times Square because I knew my internship would soon be coming to an end. Before I knew it, I’d be moving back to Wisconsin where the big city lights would be replaced by an endless amount of stars to gaze at from a countryside driveway.
As I walked through New York’s most touristy strip, I saw a sign that said “100 days until Sochi.” I wondered what Sochi was but continued on anyway. Turns out, Sochi was the upcoming Winter Olympics.
The odds you will find yourself in a VISA ad for the Olympics: 1 in however many people live in the world today. Although I’m not wanting to resort to Google for an answer I’m sure I could find, I’ll confidently put it out there that those odds are pretty slim.
But I did. And somehow I caught the exact moment the photo was taken in a video on my iPod. What?
It’s insane because the moment the photo was taken happened to be a moment that will stick with me my entire life. Not because I was in the ad, but because it was the one moment in time that stands out to me for feeling incredibly proud of myself — a moment I remember thinking that everything was going to be okay. It happened to be a moment in time where I felt the most alive and someone caught it on camera. The bigger shock, though, was that I stumbled across the ad on Facebook when I was waiting for my car to warm up after work one night — back in Wisconsin, away from my magical life in New York City.
I think the photographer must have seen the happiness on my face that night. For her to capture that moment and for me to have it forever. I think it was a moment in life that was meant for me to remember forever. To strive toward that feeling again. To continuously strive for more moments like that.
After all, you never know when the world will know your name.
