Unexpected appreciation for life...

[burningdragoon]

(I'm not sure how to search for this so forgive me if it is old thoughts)

I'm gonna pose the question first, just in case I bore people before it comes up.

Have you ever experienced something that made you appreciate something not really related to to the experience? By something I mean anything from taking class in school to oh, I dunno, getting in a fist fight. Afterwards you start to view something about life differently even though it wasn't really directly related to what you experienced.

That may not being making the most sense. I do that sometimes (a lot), so let me explain where this is coming from.

I started thinking about this again after this weeks Extra Credits, but it's not really about that. About a year and half ago, my second semester of my junior year of college, I took a graphics class for my major. The class was actually really awesome and I wish my school gave an opportunity to continue the subject. It consisted of building a a graphic rendering program from scratch. We learned different methods for rendering graphics and the math behind lighting, shadows, reflection, etc. By the end of the course we had a pretty cool little rendering program. It was by far my favorite Computer Science class I've taken.

So you would expect, that after taking a course like that, you would appreciate computer graphics a little bit more. I do, but that is not the biggest thing I took away from the course. I started to really appreciate the real life counter part to everything I went over in class.

The shadows from the sun shining in the window. Trees and plants blowing in the wind. The infinite number of "pixels" of every object in the world that your eyes can "render". Seriously, the world is pretty awesome when you think about it. And that is really not something you would expect to take away from a class about computers.

/rambling.

Does my original question make sense now?

I am actually pretty seriously interested if anyone has similar unexpected appreciations.

 

[nunqual]

So, you mean something that makes us appreciate our lives more? I suppose my father's heart attack made me realize how close we are to death, and as a result it made me appreciate life more.

 

[hurfdurp]

I had my first car accident recently. It wasn't even anything threatening really, no one was even close to hurt, it was more-so an inconvenience that took away our entire day (dealing with police, insurance, etc.). It could have been something worse though, there are so many variables. To think that such a tiny blip in time could have dramatically altered your life is pretty unsettling, "oh, woops my sister is dead all of a sudden", how horrible would that have been? Creepy.

 

[Serenegoose]

For the past few years I've been in a bad way, in terms of mental health, but I was sitting in a coffee shop a few days ago, and I looked around me just to see so much life, so many people just doing their stuff, and it was really pleasant and peaceful and it just made me think that sometimes things aren't all that bad.

 

[burningdragoon]

So, you mean something that makes us appreciate our lives more? I suppose my father's heart attack made me realize how close we are to death, and as a result it made me appreciate life more.

Life or anything really. Life is bigger than some random little thing, so those things probably stay with you longer.

For the past few years I've been in a bad way, in terms of mental health, but I was sitting in a coffee shop a few days ago, and I looked around me just to see so much life, so many people just doing their stuff, and it was really pleasant and peaceful and it just made me think that sometimes things aren't all that bad.

Yeah, simply taking in the world sometimes can do wonders.

 

[Judgement101]

Well I would say something but due to the fact that this websites hostility level is somewhere between 4chan and Xbox Live, I think I'll hold my tounge.

 

[Serenegoose]

Well I would say something but due to the fact that this websites hostility level is somewhere between 4chan and Xbox Live, I think I'll hold my tounge.

Oh come on, we're at least someway between Xbox live and the average day in Baghdad, I think.

 

[Judgement101]

Well I would say something but due to the fact that this websites hostility level is somewhere between 4chan and Xbox Live, I think I'll hold my tounge.

Oh come on, we're at least someway between Xbox live and the average day in Baghdad, I think.

I would say something witty as a remake but again people will quote it out of context and I'll get suspended again.

 

[Serenegoose]

Well I would say something but due to the fact that this websites hostility level is somewhere between 4chan and Xbox Live, I think I'll hold my tounge.

Oh come on, we're at least someway between Xbox live and the average day in Baghdad, I think.

I would say something witty as a remake but again people will quote it out of context and I'll get suspended again.

I'm positive. Still, at least you're not being a sourpuss about it. Good mental attitude and so forth.

 

[Judgement101]

Well I would say something but due to the fact that this websites hostility level is somewhere between 4chan and Xbox Live, I think I'll hold my tounge.

Oh come on, we're at least someway between Xbox live and the average day in Baghdad, I think.

I would say something witty as a remake but again people will quote it out of context and I'll get suspended again.

I'm positive. Still, at least you're not being a sourpuss about it. Good mental attitude and so forth.

Are you being sarcastic?

 

[Serenegoose]

Well I would say something but due to the fact that this websites hostility level is somewhere between 4chan and Xbox Live, I think I'll hold my tounge.

Oh come on, we're at least someway between Xbox live and the average day in Baghdad, I think.

I would say something witty as a remake but again people will quote it out of context and I'll get suspended again.

I'm positive. Still, at least you're not being a sourpuss about it. Good mental attitude and so forth.

Are you being sarcastic?

You wound me with your accusations. I'm physically incapable of sarcasm.

 

[Phlakes]

I had a random epiphone which made me realize that being sad is impractical and I decided to stop being sad.

 

[Judgement101]

I had a random epiphone which made me realize that being sad is impractical and I decided to stop being sad.

I had the complete opposite.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

For me, it was my former best friend making it through her pregnancy, and more recently finding out that my intuition skills aren't complete shit.

 

[arsenicCatnip]

After someone dear to my boyfriend passed away, I realized how precious life really is. True, mine is filled with anxiety and fear and worry, but there's joy and music and pure sensual pleasure to be had too.

Cliche? Yeah. But I appreciate the warm weight of my idiot kitten against my left hip and his obnoxiously loud purring as I type this that much more.

 

[SimuLord]

Just yesterday I had one of those moments that was a sign from the gods that what I'm doing in life is fundamentally right. I spent about three hours in total at the foot of a tree reading and studying. The first hour was over lunch, where my chowdown was interrupted by an old friend and fellow transfer student from community college chatting with me about our future in the accounting profession. The other two were just a gorgeous, warm, solitary time that gave me plenty of good chances to reflect on my decisions in life since about two years ago.

I've really had to try hard to talk myself into sticking with the often soul-destroying business education, but yesterday really affirmed it for me. I felt like the gods themselves were looking down with approval.

(of course, when discussing the gods and life affirmation, the heart attack I had at thirty that made me find religion in the first place should be mentioned!)