Do What You Love

Everyone has something they strongly believe in, whether it’s a religious belief, political belief, or something someone special to them told them once or twice before. But for someone to strongly believe in one particular thing there has to be a special event that took place in their lifetime, something that really moved them and opened their eyes to something real. This event could’ve been a huge event, like the twin towers falling on September 11th or something like last words from an epic death scene you would see in movies. It could be something as small as your teacher allowing you to have an extension on a test. Regardless, an event drastically changed the way you look at life. But as for me, this particular event not only impacted me, but numerous people around me.

Before I began to attend college I loved playing basketball and still do. I played as a kid and all four years of high school. Every year October 15th was the start of basketball season, which was our first day of basketball tryouts. At the beginning of the tryout, our coach had us do basketball drills to judge our talents and decide whether could make the team or not. At the beginning of the tryout, we had to do a few sprints. On our second sprint, one of the players collapsed on the opposite end of the court. As we finished out that sprint, our coach sprinted to the other end of the court to help the fallen player. He was breathing abnormally and was what seemed to be a state of being paralyzed. Coach called for an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital. Luckily enough it was only a block away from the school. We players stayed at the gym, clueless of what to do. We stayed there for a few hours. After a while we all went home. That night I received a phone call informing me that the kid that collapsed on the court died moments later after leaving the gym. His name was Waseeq.

Waseeq wasn’t the best player, but he loved the game more than anyone on the court. He worked harder than his opponent. Whether it was LeBron James or fellow classmate, you could always count on him to outwork his competition. He respected his family, his peers, and the game. Why did he have to go? Someone as kind-hearted as he was. At the time, the only positive thing that we could make out of the situation was that he died doing something he loved to do. But now we know not to take things that we love to do for granted. Now we know that it could be taken away from us just like it was taken from Waseeq. Because of Waseeq, we now know that we should do what we love to do to our fullest potential, to never slack, and never quit. We now know to appreciate the little things in life that some can’t experience. Waseeq Shahid will forever be remembered.

People, especially some young adults, take things for granted and don’t appreciate the things they have or the things they are able to do. Don’t waste your time doing things you don’t love doing (other than bettering you education). Life is too short to continue doing the things you dread. Do what you love to do to your fullest potential and be thankful for it.