Those Seven Minutes After You Die...
Did you know? Your brain still functions for seven minutes after you die. There's rumors about those last seven minutes. Some people say that you have an out of body experience, and you stay there with your body until your seven minutes are up. Others say that you visit all your family and friends, and give them your own sort of farewell. But the most common rumor about your last seven minutes, and probably the most repeated, is that your life flashes before your eyes, and then you get to say goodbye.
It sounds kind of scary, doesn't it? How it feels to know that every little move you make now, while your still alive, will one day flash before your eyes. Maybe, depending on what you believe, it decides if you go to Heaven or Hell. But would you be glad to relive your moments for seven minutes? Or no?
Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's no such thing as your life flashing before your eyes. Maybe you don't see anything with your last seven minutes of a functioning brain. Maybe, just maybe, there's no Heaven. There's no hell. You simply live a life to be put inside dirt upon dirt upon rock. Never revealing a reason for having lived. If that's the case, I question, why do we learn all these lessons, only to have them add up to nothing?
I think my real question, though, is if you get a choice during those seven minutes. I've heard stories that there's certain exceptions where you get to pick life or death, such as car accidents. It is this type of rumor, where I myself, must question if whether or not there is a God.
So, again I ask, do we get a choice? If it's a car accident that could've been prevented, can we live, considering it was not our fault? If it was murder, can we choose life? If we drove our car off a cliff, if we swallowed pills at a dance, can we choose to redeem ourselves?
I worry about these seven minutes, in all honesty, for my friends, and for myself. Quite sadly, I do not want to see my life flash before my eyes. Think I'm crazy? Well, maybe I am. See, reliving the good moments would be amazing, but then, it's the realization at the end of those seven minutes that burns you. You realize, that all those delicate, fragile, loving good memories, are gone. And you will never have those good memories, again.
So, if your life flashes before your eyes in seven minutes, what exact parts flash before your eyes? Is it every single part? Is it unimportant parts? What will you see, when your life flashes before your eyes?
The First Minute
In the first minute of your last seven, you see yourself as a baby. Do you ever wonder why you can't remember yourself as a baby? Do you wonder what it was like? This is probably why we have our baby steps remembered before death. We can understand where we began.
The first thing you remember is the first face you saw when you were born. Which, is most likely, the doctor. This is the person who first held you. This is the person who handed you off to your mother. To which he probably now says, “Your welcome.” Or depending on the case, “I'm terribly sorry.”
You then remember your mother. You see her flushed face, sweat laced hair as she holds you for the first time in your life and her life. You see her eyes, whether they were a mousy brown, or a rich blue, or a green somewhere in between.
Next, you see your father. They say a man does not become a father until the day he holds his child. This is what you see. You get to witness a man become a father.
But what's the point of all this? Why are you seeing this? Well, think of what you're seeing. Think of what your feeling. The first thought you give about your parents, determines your life with them forever.
When you saw your mother for the first time; when you saw your father for the first time...
Did you feel love, or hate?
The Second Minute
During your second minute, you see your best friends. You experience the best moments you had with them. And, the worst moments.
You experience the moment you and her went to California, and stuck your heads out the backseat window, making cat sounds at walking pedestrians. You experience your worst fight, when she didn't look at you for two weeks.
You experience the time you and him bonded at school while the other friend was gone. How he made you life by saying idiotic things that slipped off his tongue. And you remember when he swore to never forgive you.
You remember when she nearly cried at the song you wrote for her, thanking her for being there for you. You remember when you moved away from her.
You recall the day she picked you up from being alone, and gave you friends. And you recall finding out that she had secrets of her own.
You recall meeting her, and when she listened to you talk and talk about the guy who broke your heart. And you remember her not giving you her trust.
You remember meeting him at a football game, and learning that this accidental person, would one day be a big part of your life. And you remember being told you couldn't have him.
You remember confiding in him at a dance, telling him your deepest secrets, and falling in love. You remember when he said he wanted to die.
The Third Minute
In the third minute, you remember the people you fell in love with. In this experience, you almost fall in love with them again.
It starts with your first infatuation. When you thought you were in love, and realized how undoubtedly crazy you were. The beginning stabs your mind, and flows throughout your veins like water through a clear pipe. The day you realized you wanted to be with each other. It set you up for a year of heartbreaks, and smiles. And trust.
And then you said goodbye. And you moved on. Alone, for about a year and a half. You stayed alone. Not needing the love you thought you had found. Swore to yourself that love didn't exist. You made yourself that promise the night he said goodbye, and you cried in your mother's arms for twenty minutes. You promised that even though you would move on, you couldn't trust yourself with anyone else, ever again.
But then you found someone else. You spoke of your deepest secrets. You spoke of what you'd never even told the first person. Things you were scared to say, out of fear that someone would judge you.
But this new person sat there and listened. They spoke to you and soothed you while you cried in loneliness. They gave you advice, and they countered your bad memories with their own. And to this day, you still remember every word they said.
“You get upset because everyone laughed, and then eventually, finally, you realize. They aren't laughing at you.”
The Fourth Minute
This is the minute when you go through your hard times once again. In this flash of memories, you see the first time someone broke your heart. You see when someone, or something, close to your heart, died. And left you here without them, forever.
You remember when you realized you hated someone. When they hated you, too.
You remember finding someone you cared about deeply. And then being told you couldn't have them.
But what bad memory is going to hurt the most? Is it the heartbreaks? Or the judgment? Or the deaths?
You decide what hurts the most.
The Fifth Minute
In the fifth minute, you remember the lessons. The big lessons. This is where everything you took to heart comes rushing back. Can you feel it? Can you remember? Lessons are coming back, and maybe, just maybe, you take these lessons to heaven, or hell.
You don't remember the silly lessons that you never cared about. You forget about slope-intercept form, or World War Two. You don't remember the lessons in class that you slept through, or the ones where you were emailing instead of paying attention.
No, you remember the meaningful lessons.
Lesson of smiling.
Lesson of crying.
Lesson of hate.
Lesson of love.
Lesson of friendship.
Lesson of loss.
The Sixth Minute
In the sixth minute, you remember who you are. You sort of discover yourself in these sixty seconds.
How did you feel about yourself while you were alive? Did you love every single part? Or did you hate your full existence? Whether you played guitar, or sang, or painted, or worked with medicine, or skated. No matter what you did, you did something that made you happy, even if it wasn't your job.
In the morning, when you looked at yourself in the morning. You judged yourself. Everyone does. Either you were too fat, or too skinny, or too ugly. What did you hate? What did you love?
The Seventh Minute
I can't tell you what happens in the last minute of your life. I do not know for sure. It can be beautiful, it can be ugly.
Whatever happens in the last minute, it sums up everything. It brings meaning, and answers.
You've now seen your whole life flash before your eyes. So tell me, was it something you're proud of?
You determine what happens in your last seven minutes.
So go on, and live.
Make those last seven minutes, worth it.
“Eventually, your life flashes before your eyes. Make it something worth watching.” -Anonymous
ATTENTION!!! I am turning this story into a novella!! If you would like me to upload the novella as I write it, please comment or message!!