Carpe Diem

Seize the day! That was the motto of my high school, Earl Haig in Willowdale. When I watched the movie, Dead Poets’ Society, it was there, too.

I wish I had known just what Carpe Diem meant long ago. Yes, I knew that it meant seize the day, but I didn’t know how to put it into practice. It was something that I saw on the logo and heard in our school song.

There were too many times in my life when I was young when opportunity stared me in the face and I looked the other way.

Don’t get me wrong. My life hasn’t turned out too badly, but I am sad when I think of some of the might have beens and how a few more wonderful experiences might have added to the many I have already had.

A good example of my not seizing the day was the frosh picnic at Ryerson. Some people in my class tried to persuade me to attend. This was back in 1972. I found every excuse not to go. I felt that the band that was playing at this event was dumb. Who would name a band The Chicago Transit Authority and have a record called 25 to 6 to 4? How wrong I was. The Chicago Transit Authority eventually became the band called Chicago. I could have seen them up close for free.

Why didn’t I go? Fear of the unknown.

Fortunately I have gotten over a lot of that fear, although it still creeps back from time to time.