Predictably, it is causing me to reflect on my own life. I'm sitting up in my bed, typing on my smartphone at 1:39 am, exploring the feeling that I have no idea what I'm fighting for.

At the risk of diluting the genuineness of Dustin's words with cliches of my own, I actually now realize I don't know what I'm doing with my life. Which is surprising to me, because I've been lulled into absorbing my own persona of "guy who has plans and ambition" — I'm sure many of you can relate.

I'm a senior in high school, off to college next year. I'm supposed to be studying cognitive science and human-computer interaction. I have worked hard, inside and outside the classroom, to get where I am, or so people tell me.

I have aspirations of greatness too naive and disgustingly grandiose to formulate into actionable plans. I legitimately see threads connecting all reality — from the power of design to the eerie harmony of the human experience — and that it is my duty to weave them into visibility.

Worse, I believe I have the duty to change the world, because I regularly fantasize about doing so. I have been raised to believe that "if I will it, it is no dream."

I have the dreams, some very specific, others abstract, but I can't always make sense of them when I wake up.

And how do I know which are worth fighting for?

Some people seem better at finding a clarity of purpose. Others change their minds, reevaluate their lives, shift their preferences and their focus. It's a process that I think a lot of people go through.

You'll go to college and learn about a bunch of different things. Maybe something will click and you'll say "this is what I want to do with the rest of my life," or maybe it'll take you a little while. Maybe you'll take a philosophy class and discover new and interesting ways of thinking about all of this.

I guess I'm just trying to say: don't worry if you don't know what you want to do with your time on this planet. You'll figure it out some day, or at the very least you'll have the search.

Edit: Just want to add that some people don't do anything with their lives and that's okay too. The phrase "do something with your life" bothers me a little just because it makes this assumption that life is this thing that you have to "do something" with (which I'm assuming refers to some kind of accomplishment). We're just sacks of meat experiencing and interacting with the world. Everything on top of that is personal values.

That being said, I think making huge decisions about the directions of your life before you hit a certain threshold of experience is like trying to solve a Wheel of Fortune round with only X's, V's, and I's on the board. It's a better utilization of your time and resources to educate yourself -- whether that's in a classroom or on an online forum -- to prepare yourself for making those decisions.

Spoiler alert: you will find this hilarious in a year or two.

I am fearful of what happens "after" OR I fear nothingness, it also makes me very very sad..

As mentioned in the article, it's extremely rare for people to survive cardiac arrest. My dad is alive for two reasons:

1. Hands-only CPR. It works, and it's dead simple. handsonlycpr.org

2. He was extremely healthy before the incident. He may have been 76, but he also worked out and climbed mountains. Exercising and eating right not only prevents cardiac problems, they also improve your recovery. His body was in a condition to repair itself better than most individuals his age. Being healthy is not just about prevention.

He never fully recovered. He regained some mobility of the paralysed side, but never enough to walk despite our efforts to make him get up and use a rail to walk down the corridor. He could at least help my grandmother with his assisted transfers from bed to wheelchair, which was good considering she was almost as old as well. He was not able to talk properly, but he could communicate well enough. As someone who'd been tending to an avery of hundreds of birds and doing manual labour on his acres of property prior to that, it was the single worst torture for him to be paralysed like that.

He remained incredibly mentally sharp. He'd come to family birthdays and would be sitting at the end of the table with some of hte family around and he'd spot something across the room that no one else saw - a grandchild stealing a sweet from the table or whatnot. He'd struggle to communicate it to us but sure enough his eagle eyes and sharp attention had noticed it.

It was with no doubt that his incredible physical health was what made him even survive. He lived for some 5-8 years after that. It was a terrible life and he felt incredibly depressed and helpless given his previous circumstance, but he was alive and we gave him the best quality of life we could.

In summary, I guess what I'm trying to say via example is that you cannot possibly underestimate the ability for a healthy body to endure trauma that a less healthy body will just give up under. Especailly as you age, your physical health will help you in ways you can never imagine. Don't neglect it.

Oh, and CPR is a phenomenal tool. Being able to provide first aid is one of those things that you hope will never pay off, but when it does it will literally save a life.

Funny how your priorities can change so vastly.

So far I had formed the impression one should be going with their instinct. Are some instincts bad and some good? What's the test for telling which is which?

Have you found ways around such obstacles?

By the way, the most spectacular story along these lines I've heard is that of Anna Bågenholm, a Swedish doctor who was trapped under ice, in flowing meltwater for 80 minutes [1]. She made a nearly full recovery after being "dead" for hours. Read the article, it makes you wonder what life really is.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_B%C3%A5genholm