A wake-up call: “We don’t have forever.”
“It’s not all about me, and even though I’m in pain, it’s worth sticking around to maybe make my little corner of the world a slightly better place.”
“We don’t have forever.” weaves a series of poetic and reflective statements about life and the significance of time. The video is constructed out of dialog pieces from various movies and series. Accompanied by a beautiful instrumental playing in the background, this video invites the viewers to divert their focus from anything else but the essential message that its creator, Merwan, intends to deliver through this video.
Out of all the quotes Merwan has inserted into the video, he chose the quote said by John Keating, the main protagonist of the movie Dead Poet Society: “Poetry, beauty, romance, love; these are what we stay alive for.” to welcome the viewers. This quote expresses the elements of life from the perspective of John Keating, an English Teacher with a passionate love for poetry. However, as I possessed no significant interest in poetry and little to zero romance experience, I decided to mainly and briefly discuss the fourth reason mentioned by Keating, which is love.
Love is life; life is love. I believe that the universe is very much love-centric. Not only there is love in everything, but also everything starts with love. This statement can be seen in humans for humans are born from love–we are the results of love and we bear love inside us every day since the first day we come into existence.
Similar to Keating’s words, I think that love might be one of the sole reasons why humans are able to survive this tough and miserable world. Although the number of people who claim to despise their lives is probably not small, I continue to believe that love plays a pivotal role in human lives.
Another quote featured in the video is one from the movie titled The Sun is Also a Star,
“Everyone we need, everyone we love, how we got here, what path we choose, and who we choose to remember. They are all a part of our story, but we cannot allow the story to be written for us. Because we don’t have forever. Sometimes, all we have is a single day.”.
I come to reflect on the shortness of life and the countless experiences and encounters that occurred despite its limited timeframe. The underlying message delivered is that our life is finite. Although this is a rudimentary fact, sometimes people tend to forget that, once again, we don’t have forever. This quote serves as a wake-up call for people to focus on the present, to be active in their own lives, and to simply tell them to make the best out of life.
Another remarkable quote in this video is from the movie A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood:
“But to die is to be human, and anything human is mentionable, and anything mentionable is manageable. Anything mentionable is manageable.”
This quote encourages people to start acknowledging the realities and their human experiences, that talking about feelings helps people in facing their problems, making them less overwhelming and more bearable.
The video ends with a quote from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:
“I said it before and I’ll say it again. Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.”
This quote serves as a reminder for people to cherish the present and not let even one moment of their life pass unnoticed. To sum up, this short video is a beautiful form of reminder for people about the importance of life and love.
A short response essay for a YouTube video: We don’t have forever.
