Book — “When Breath Becomes Air”

A month ago, as I was browsing the Stanford Continuing Study catalog, a class caught my attention:

“PDV 105 W — What Matters Most in Life: The Lessons We Can Learn from Dying”

Not the usual class, right? My initial intention was to pick a class to improve some professional skills: productivity, social intelligence, negotiation maybe?

And here I was, reading passionately the syllabus of a class about LIFE through DEATH. I never took the time to think this through before: what does it mean to live a meaningful life? to die with dignity? which type of legacy do I want to leave in this world? Are the choices I am making right now make sense if I have 2 years to live? 10 years? 50?

Here I was, completely puzzled by this class. I enrolled. I paid. And I stopped thinking about it until the class started.

At the end of the first week, I withdrew from the class. I somehow convinced myself that I didn’t have enough time aside from my job to dedicate to this class. Too much reading materials, too many videos, too many “hard” topics.

Before I withdrew from the class, I wrote down the reading materiaL to go through it on my own pace.

The first reading was “When Breath Becomes Air” from Paul Kalanithi.

Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. Heartbreaking yet so awakening.

Which life do we want to live?

Ask yourself, because you will die. And so would I.

So would everyone else in your life.