Chalk another one up beside Y2k for epic prophecy FAILS of our time! Or just mass idiocy.There was no fire and brimstone for Bruce Willis to prevent. No aliens invading for Will Smith to punchasize in the forehead. And no zombies for a sexy leather clad Milla Jovovich to fight off In 13 sequels. And I’m as tired of hearing about the “Mayan Prophecy” as much as the next person.But lets just play “what if” for a minute…What if there had been an actual apocalypse? What if the world was going to end? Would you have been ready to die with no regrets at all? Us North Americans seemed to be the most obsessed with this topic. If “Apocalypse” had been a brand name or a fragrance, damn would Americans be wearing that the hell out of it like a new fad some celebrity started on the red carpet.The past month I couldn’t go one day without hearing about it!If “apocalypse style” had been turned into a music video, nobody would have ever even noticed that crazy Korean horse rider Psy. Hell, it’s always possible that Gangnam Style was a rain dance and we were the cause of Hurricane Sandy!

So if we are this damn fascinated and frightened by the end of times, how come we aren’t thinking about our own end of time specifically? First off, let’s get a few things straight…The Mayans never predicted the end of the world. Even people of Mayan descent and practice don’t acknowledge this.Their calendar came to an end of an age.The Bible does the same thing. You have those lunatics marching around with signs raving about the “end of times” because it is written in the Bible. No, they are stupid. It predicts the end of an Aeon, or the end of an age, which leads us into the next. For example; like that groovy song, we are in the age of Aquarius. People tend to love to misconstrue ancient meanings into some sort of Hollywood disaster story.Same thing happened here. So why is it that I woke up the morning of this “apocalypse” and the world, and people more specifically, were the same?It was all the rage the past few weeks, yet people still stood in line at Starbucks clamoring over their caffeine fix and pissed off about the wait.Nothing had changed.They were still grumpy heading to their cubicle prisons. They were still not politely holding doors for one another.They were still not saying hello to a passerby, or offering a free smile to a stranger.There was nobody really cherishing their life. Still.The world was still in that false limbo I have grown to loath. And this is coming from someone who is working a restaurant and retail job. Why am I in such a fine mood? Because I acknowledge that the end of time (my own) can come any day, so I am working as hard as I can to get back to doing what I love: Travel.I want you to really consider the scenario. Not longer than a couple of minutes, because I don’t want you to become depressed by thoughts of a fiery end. Just enough to slap you in the face.Think right now if 12/21/2012 had been the end of the world. Maybe some strange Godzilla-esque creature is rampaging your city. Maybe its an unstoppable asteroid. Just think: THE END IS COMING TOMORROW!

You are scared, and reflecting back on everything you have done.And that bucket list you wrote and never crossed anything off on is burning.Is there anything going through your head that you always wish you had done now that there is no tomorrow to give the excuse of “maybe someday“.Maybe you went out and partied like there was no tomorrow. Fun. Maybe you got laid by pulling some cheesy line. Cool. Maybe you decided to take the day off for the hell of it. Nice.But would that last hurrah (whether taken seriously or not) have made you proud? Would it have made your life memorable? Were you doing something you truly give a damn about?If you cannot answer any of those questions with a confident “YES” it’s time to start a change.It’s time to consider every day as your last on this planet.Time to embrace that urgency of knowing there is nothing to lose because all you have is now.Time to forget how crappy your life might be and show up happy anyways.Time to show up happy because you know you are working for something you wouldn’t want to die without doing.Time to enjoy every sunny day, every random encounter, every smile, every laugh, every bad day, every hard day, and every second of the day because you are finally living your dream.Why? Because E.T. could be coming with his homies any time now.Okay, seriously — because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. And it never will be. Too many variables effect your life each day.There is a whole beautiful planet out there with awesome people. You were not put on Earth to count down until the next overblown apocalypse prediction while dressed in a suit, tie, and frown. You were not meant to gaze at a new paradise calendar each year from your desk, or StumbleUpon parts of the world you will never see.You can see the world you know.But life is a ticking time-bomb. It’s ticking right as your read this.Your end of days can come tomorrow, so why not go out with a bang each and every day until it actually is your last?If you aren’t living your dream, then you have nothing to lose.