Do You Want to Be Remembered After Death?

  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    @ obituary
    Being remembered after death isn't the same as being remembered for your death. Being remembered for your life after death isn't the same as being remembered for the way you died.
    January 6th, 2013 at 07:11pm
  • savages

    savages (100)

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    @ the drupocalypse.
    Good God, I totally forgot about this post, haha.

    I've changed my views on death and everything to do with it, honestly. But you're right.
    January 6th, 2013 at 07:31pm
  • SummerSunshine

    SummerSunshine (100)

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    I don't know whether I will be able to acknowledge whether people remember or forget me after my death. I don't think it matters as long as I'm not there to witness the memory of me still lingers in some people's head. If I will be there after my death, I want to remembered by the living people, but not much, because they need to go on with their life. I also have a feeling that they might not remember me, but I don't think I will be too sad, because I am dead and it is quite normal for living people to forget the dead.
    January 12th, 2013 at 10:30am
  • peaceforeber

    peaceforeber (100)

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    The reason I want to be remembered after death is very simple ;) I want to be and become something great and to have made something out of my life. I want to have helped other people with their lives also :) I just want to have been somebody that the world wants to remember. I want to be great, maybe even a legend Cool
    January 23rd, 2013 at 10:38pm
  • based

    based (200)

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    I want to make an impact on the world for certain, but I don't know how much I care if I'm remembered after I'm gone. I just want to mean something in the moment, but once I'm dead I won't be conscious and therefore obviously it won't matter to me if anyone remembers me.
    June 20th, 2014 at 11:29am
  • FuckNo

    FuckNo (100)

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    MORANG:
    Finally, someone who feels the same way i do Smiley
    Congratulations, you're officially forever going to be remembered by me as the person that introduced me to that dancing elephant. I'm kind of in love with it.

    I'm not sure if I want to be remembered or not.
    June 20th, 2014 at 08:16pm
  • lonely girl.

    lonely girl. (250)

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    Not at all. I want to die, and for people to move on and forget me.
    Unfortunately, that's not how it happens.
    July 14th, 2014 at 12:35pm
  • cannibal.

    cannibal. (145)

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    Brita;:
    No.
    This still stands. I'd rather be forgotten completely.
    July 30th, 2014 at 06:39pm
  • bye gone

    bye gone (110)

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    I've been told that the only thing a person can leave behind to remember them is their children, and as someone who can't see myself as a parent in the future this very much disturbed me.

    I'm hoping maybe I'll leave something behind, maybe some writing of mine will get uncovered one day. Or, seeing as it's the field I want to go into, maybe I'll make some big scientific discovery that makes a difference on the world. I don't know.

    But I just kind of want to do something to make my life count, you know? Like I don't want to near the end of my life and realize I've done nothing nearly remarkable at all because at that point it would be too late to go back.
    August 3rd, 2014 at 04:39pm
  • vanduo

    vanduo (100)

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    I feel like an attention whore, but I really want people to remember me not only as someone they knew, but because of my writing. I want kids being taught about me in schools, while teachers praise my work. I know I don't deserve it, but that's how I feel
    August 8th, 2014 at 10:21pm
  • delirium.

    delirium. (1200)

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    Honestly, part of me says, "yeah I'd love to be remembered as the girl who loved to laugh or the girl who tried to help." But... then there's that part of me that says no... I really don't care if people do or not. I don't want to be a pain for people or a burden, so if my memory is dragging someone down, I'd much rather be forgotten.
    August 15th, 2014 at 05:19am
  • Sienna-Rose-1

    Sienna-Rose-1 (100)

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    It depends on what the individual defines as being remembered in my opinion.

    For example, I often remember my nan, with her silver sharp tongue that contrasted with her petite fragile frame. She is remembered but not for changing the world or by discovering a new thing to be marvelled at. She is just remembered by people that love her.

    In the event of my death, as it stands I would be remembered by those that love me so I don't really have a choice.

    But as for being remembered for doing something amazing, I'm working on it :)
    August 24th, 2014 at 06:59pm
  • wish on a firefly

    wish on a firefly (885)

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    I'm not really sure. It'd be nice to be remembered fondly but i wouldn't want anyone to become obsessively depressed and regretful, saying stuff like, "I should'vr done this with her," "If only I had done something." Etc. I want my loved ones to grieve, mourn and move on.
    September 3rd, 2014 at 03:38am
  • The Real Mitt Romney

    The Real Mitt Romney (250)

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    I don't think I will ever become famous or worthy of cult followers, so, I don't know. I mean, I want you to remember me but not cry over my death. Celebrate the times we had and remember what we have. Just because I'm not in the body you knew me as doesn't mean you have to forget me and cry when you think of me. I want you to smile at the times we had, or think of them on a night you need to be comforted. But if I am forgotten that's alright too. Like I said, I'm not worthy of cult followers so if the thought of me fades forever, that's alright.
    September 4th, 2014 at 01:58am
  • based

    based (200)

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    faeoirkfl
    September 16th, 2014 at 07:27am
  • FuckNo

    FuckNo (100)

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    @ The Real Mitt Romney
    You don't have to be famous or have cult followers in order to be remembered.
    September 21st, 2014 at 04:17am
  • BecauseSheSaidSo

    BecauseSheSaidSo (100)

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    I'm honestly not too sure about if I would want to be remembered after death. I feel like it is nearly impossible.
    I'm reading The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius right now for my AP English class, and in it Lady Philosophy explains that everyone dies two deaths. The first death is physical, taking your last breath. The second death is when all thoughts of you are lost, when you are no longer remembered.
    That sounds super depressing, and I'm not sure if I believe it entirely, but I just thought it was interesting.
    September 23rd, 2014 at 05:12am
  • n. josten

    n. josten (1270)

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    BecauseSheSaidSo:
    I'm honestly not too sure about if I would want to be remembered after death. I feel like it is nearly impossible.
    I'm reading The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius right now for my AP English class, and in it Lady Philosophy explains that everyone dies two deaths. The first death is physical, taking your last breath. The second death is when all thoughts of you are lost, when you are no longer remembered.
    That sounds super depressing, and I'm not sure if I believe it entirely, but I just thought it was interesting.
    I've heard of that before and it depresses the hell out of me, and in a way, I think I believe it because once your loved ones have passed on, there's nothing else, really. I think eventually, we're all forgotten over time and it could easily be like a second death.

    I think my faint desire to be remembered after I die is almost natural because I'm a writer. Even when you're dead, your writing is out there somewhere and it might get buried, but it's out there and someone might remember it or someone might find it and fall in love with it or at least know it's out there, and know of you. I don't want to be remembered because I wrote a "classic" or anything; I don't want to be like Sylvia Plath or someone else. I just want my writing to be out there when I die so there's a sliver of hope that I'm remembered when I'm gone and my loved ones are no longer around to talk about me. But I'm also an idealist so I'm not sure how realistic that might be.

    But truthfully, deep down, I still believe we're all eventually forgotten. As the years go by, I think the memory will be too buried underneath everything else to truly exist. I think one day, William Shakespeare and Sylvia Plath and H.P. Lovecraft will be forgotten underneath the memories of more recent authors. So even though we remember them now, decades later, that doesn't mean we always will—we'll stop hearing about them in school and they'll stop being a "need-to-know" subject; their wording and writing style will be outdated and pointless to teach and they'll fade away, replaced by other authors. Books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye will all eventually be forgotten. It'll take a long time, but it's going to happen. Authors from our times will be the new classic writers; books we read and adored when we were teenagers will be taught to teenagers many generations from now instead of Shakespeare or Plath or Robert Frost because the language will die and no longer be appreciated, therefore no longer taught. And like everything else, it'll be forgotten.

    So I'm not sure what to believe. It's been decades and decades since some of what we consider "classics" were written and they're still remembered, but for how much longer? It can't be forever; nothing lasts forever. I think writing keeps us alive longer than we can possibly be physically. The idealist and romantic in me wants to believe that there's ways to be remembered long after death, but the pessimistic (and possibly realistic) side of me knows we're all forgotten eventually, no matter the footprint we've left on the world. There's always going to be someone that does it better, introduces something new, and overthrows what we think will forever be remembered.

    I think the only thing that'll ever be remembered are the wars of the world and the destruction we've caused such as the cities we've built and the lands we've ruined because we're an aggressively controlling and sad species.
    September 26th, 2014 at 08:47am
  • BecauseSheSaidSo

    BecauseSheSaidSo (100)

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    @ pallid
    Everything you said is very valid. It will take a very long time, but eventually a lot of those classic writers, musicians, etc. will be forgotten and replaced. Very good point. Really though, nothing lasts forever, like you said.
    September 27th, 2014 at 10:19pm