From a young age I would often think about death. As a kid I would get panic attacks or start crying because I would worry about my parents dying in an accident or something while I was away from them at school or soccer practice. As I grow older, now I think more about my own death, and how we can take life for granted. At times death scares me, at times it motivates me to make the most of every breath I take, and at times strangely enough I am at peace with it.

I feel there are four main phases to life. Childhood (and adolescence), adulthood, parenthood, and seniorhood. And within these four stages, in my mind your perspective of death changes. In childhood, the fear of death arises from losing the ones who take care of you. As a child I remember conjuring up all these negative thoughts and would fear for the worst when my parents would be late to pick me up at school, when in reality they were just stuck in traffic. But at the same time, at least for me, the actual death of say the friend of my parents' or someone we knew didn't really make me feel any kind of way, even when seeing their limp body at the viewing. At a young age it was hard for me to emotionally understand the loss of life but I intuitively understood that if I lost the ones who kept me safe, (ie my parents) life would become much more difficult, which emanated as worry, anxiety, and at times panic attacks.

Adolescence could be considered it's own phase as well, but for examples sake let's consider it more as a transitional phase. Here in adolescence is when I personally was deeply impacted by someone's death and I realized how we should not take the existence of those we love and care about for granted. It was the death of my grandpa. He was still quite physically young and healthy, but I later learned that he had been dealing with depression for a long time and he took his own life. Him passing taught me a lot about death and I began reflecting on it much more. It taught me no matter how busy we may think we are with our own life, there is always time to tell our loved ones we love them, to send them a message, to call them, to ask them how they are doing. It also taught me how even if a person seems like they are doing well, you can never actually know what is going on deep inside of them, therefore, we should always aim to be kind to others. It taught me how one's death can impact the lives of the living, as his death has deeply impacted the way I think about life and death. And most importantly how we as the living keep the legacy of those who have passed going, alive and well, and must continue to live strong and to the best of our ability, and when it is time pass that torch on to the next generation.

And now here I stand in adulthood where I contemplate my own death more often than in childhood and adolescence. I now see how death can come at me at any moment. It could be a sudden natural calamity, an accident, some sort of heath issue, the potential list of ways of death are quite endless. However, I've also learned that many of these potential ways to die can be crossed off the list by taking better control of one's life and being as prepared as can be. Numerous reasons of death come from poor health, but this is something that one can prevent substantially by conscious health changes and instilling healthy habits. Even certain external causes of death can be prevented by choosing where you live carefully or by being prepared with the necessary set up and tools. In this way, knowing that I have a lot more control over my life, death has become a little less scary, and with the knowledge I have acquired I feel much more at ease as well as empowered when it comes to prolonging my eventual demise, but also this knowledge has been empowering in the sense that I can share it to enhance and possibly prolong the lives of others that I care about. My dad's health has always been an ongoing concern of mine, but I now am able to help him better his health through better diet and regular exercise, and by doing so giving him a better chance at living a longer and healthier life.

Which then leads me to parenthood and seniorhood. I'm not there yet, but I expect to live through both phases, and I'm anticipating that my idea and thoughts on death will change within both phases.

Maybe not the brightest way to start our weekend, but to me the contemplation of death has always been important in my personal growth as well as appreciation for life.

What are stackers perspective of death? Has it changed throughout your life? For those in parenthood and seniorhood, how do you think of and approach death?