Last time I checked, we all die.
When I was a teenager, I remember people talking about how teenagers thought they were going to live forever. As I have grown up, I have come to understand both that and my own mortality more and more. Friends and relatives have died, my patch of gray hair is now more than just a patch, and small cuts and bruises don’t heal as well anymore.
We are all given a certain number of days on this earth: statistically, as an American living in 2008, around 28307 — 77.5 years. Certainly, we’re all different, and of course there are things we can do to shorten or extend that. Smoking for 15 years didn’t help, but quitting almost 8 months ago did, for one example.
But statistically speaking, I have 77.5 years. So do you, dear reader (at least you American readers.)
A post last August by colleague and friend Jeremy Zilar inspired me to look at my own lifespan visually. It started as a simple graph in Illustrator, similar to Jeremy’s, but soon grew to more.
Enter Lifeline.
So with a little help from some friends, I developed Lifeline: a simple, php-based project to show us the days of our lives. Take a look at my life, or check out your own. Bookmark the results on your iPhone if you want a reminder.
I have set Lifeline up as an open source project, and it will continue to grow — improvements are already in the works.
As of the night I write this, at 33 years old, my life is statistically 43% lived. 12124 out of 28307 days. Is this where I wanted to be at 43%? Where do I want to be at 50%? 60%? How about 80%?
How will that effect what I choose to do today?
Thanks to all who helped with this, whether through inspiration, answering questions, helping with code or just being worth living for. Jeremy, Travis, Adam and Alyson, Thompson & Sarah.