SAM #5: Anthem of My Life

Continuing with the theme of my last post on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, I want to share a song I live by – my life's anthem. This song is titled "I Lived" by One Republic. I think I first heard this song playing in the background of a large-scale event. It's one of those songs that plays well in a stadium or a huge venue. However, what grabbed my attention about the song wasn't the fact that it sounded hyper at the place; it was the lyrics that I could roughly make out from the noisy crowd.

"I did it all... I saw many places... things that I did... with every broken bone, I swear I lived."

I figured out from these words I heard that the song was probably about life. So when I went home, I searched the internet for the song. The first thing that came up was this music video:

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Halfway through the music video, I was like: "That's it! This song is going on my list of favourites!" 😂

The music video truly spoke to me as somebody with a life-threatening condition. Bryan's (the featured young man with cystic fibrosis) words resonated greatly with me. His worry about his shorter life expectancy was what filled my mind when I was down and felt life was so unfair. I couldn't agree more with him on hoping to make the most out of life and have as much fun as possible.

Life's tough, but it's the moments the song described that make me feel alive. For example, taking the plunge into the unknown is not something I like due to the uncertainties and unpredictability. However, these things sometimes add colours to my otherwise monotonous life or make me discover a new aspect of myself. There's also this bit about falling in love and hurting so badly that meant a lot to me at a time when I couldn't get over my relationship breakup. I felt like a failure, and everything that I came to believe I could do just vanished. However, listening to this song made me realise, "Hey, falling out of love and hurting badly from it is part of life's experiences. It meant that I lived!"

At the end of the day, I just want to feel that I've spent my days meaningfully doing things, going places and spending time with good company. And, just like the song expresses, "owned every second that this world could give"! 💪🏻

What about you? Do you have a life anthem or a song you swear by? Share it in the comments below!

(For friends who need captions, here's a lyrics video of the song: https://youtu.be/KINfQbfZwik.)

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