ELEVEN: Amanda Alvear

Amanda Alvear

Meaningfulness

Amanda Alvear, barely 25 years-old, saw her life cut drastically short in the Pulse nightclub shooting on June 12, 2016. Amanda had recently gained a new lease on life, shedding an incredible 180 pounds through surgery and an intense commitment to fitness. The transformation not only reshaped Amanda's body but her outlook on life. She was in the midst of celebrating the freedom of her twenties, the uninhibited joy of dancing all night in the club with her best friend, feeling safe and accepted for the first time in her life. Amanda had an infectious personality and a keen sense of fashion. She was incredibly close to her family and cared greatly for her young nieces, of whom she loved to spoil with shopping trips for the latest fashions.


Amanda, in so many ways, embodied the modern idea of the "Millennial," a young person, just a kid. Plugged in, just like all her friends, Amanda happened to catch the moment gunfire erupted in the club via SnapChat. What was supposed to be an instantly deleted blip of chatter became Amanda's final recorded moment. Our mortality becomes so much more apparent when we realize we can die at literally any time. The constant possibility that we might be dismissing some moment as trivial before we can realize it is profound is the stuff of existential crisis. Does anyone really have any control?


The only solution, pardon the cliche, is to live each moment as your last. Give the best of yourself to each moment so that when it passes you will know that you couldn't have done it any better.


The only consolation in Amanda's death comes from knowing that she died at peak happiness, her last moment one of unfiltered exuberance, at the successful conclusion of an unexpectedly last battle.


Today, in honor of Amanda, I'm committing to trying to make each moment matter. It's so easy to lose motivation and slip into cycle of learned uselessness, the best way for me to stay out of it is to know for a fact that I don't want to die there. We are all meaningful, our moments are meaningful, we just need to make sure we're living to full potential.


More Information:


49 Days Project


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/pulse-orlando-nightclub-shooting/victims/os-orlando-nightclub-shooting-victim-amanda-alvear-20160613-story.html