“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live,” said Norman Cousins, an American political journalist. Throughout our lives, it is very important to reflect on the things that we lose internally through various reasons. These losses could be a relationship, morals, or a set of personal values. Imagining the last stop of our life could be a great opportunity to remind us of things that mean a lot to ourselves and to pave the way to a new approach to life. Thus, the Granite Tower (GT) asked four Korea University (KU) students what regrets they would have when they think of their upcoming death and also asked what changes could be made in their lives.

The interviewers were asked to answer one or both of the following two questions:

1) If you were told that you were going to die within a year, what would you change about your current lifestyle and why?

2) If you were to die tonight without having the chance to talk to anyone, what is something that you would regret not having told someone? Why have you not told them yet? (Or anything that you regret not having done)

Choi Jun-yong (’19, School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering)

1) Since death is an abstract notion and people cannot hear any stories about personal death experiences, I will compare it to another similar situation. Considering that death leads to the severance of communication and the loss of your usual lifestyle, I feel like death has something in common with joining the military. My one year before death would not be so different from a year before enlisting. I would just live my life as usual and when only two to three months remain, I would relax and try to achieve things that I have always dreamed of. Then, it would be great to have time to sort out my thoughts on everything ━ including myself, the people I love, and my whole life.

2) I always have to say things immediately when I feel like I should do so, so I do not think I would regret not having told someone something.

Kim Hyun-woo (’18, School of Electrical Engineering)

2) There would be some private and trivial regrets, but in terms of my ideals, I think I would regret having no sincere concerns about our society and its development and not taking any practical action in this regard. I always wanted to be someone who contributed to society with viable actions and words. The notion of justice and contribution was the basic principle of my life, but I feel like I have wasted my whole life, just waiting for the right time to come — a time when I feel like I have enough ability or the internal intention to actually live my ideals. That might be one of my regrets, I think.

Yoo Jun-hee (’18, English Language and Literature)

1) I would try to wake up early in the morning and achieve things on my bucket list. I tend to wake up late, so I do not have many memories of doing things in the morning. However, when I think of those rare moments that I enjoyed in my morning hours, I feel like there is a certain refreshing atmosphere that I can only feel in the morning. People tend to sleep early and get up early as they get older. Just like that, if I die within a year, I want to live a “life with mornings” that I planned to enjoy in my old age. I would love to feel the sunlight flooding into my room, have leisurely meals, and read books that interest me. In terms of my bucket list, I want to travel abroad and write books, which I have always regarded as special and important.

2) I don’t think there is anything that I want to say to someone but could not. However, I think I would regret not caring about my father’s birthday more. I celebrate my mother’s birthday every year. However, for my father’s birthday, because it is in the middle of the holidays and I just do not know what to give him, I have not taken notice of it very well. I think my father might have been a little sad even though he has not directly expressed this to me. If I were to die tonight, I would regret the times that I did not give my father a birthday present.

Choi Soo-bin (’19, Environmental Science & Ecological Engineering)

1) If I were to die within a year, I would try to contemplate my philosophy and the values that I want to follow. I feel like up until now, I had no interest in social issues or philosophy, so I want to attend to the current social conflicts and my personal problems as well. I would especially try to pursue a deeper exploration of religion. Since I have been religious since birth, I just took my life of faith for granted without knowing the essence or specific motives for it. I want to figure out what exactly leads people today to go crazy over religion because it would help me, in a way, to get or create my personal motivation for leading a religious life. I have always had all these essential questions for a religious person lingering in my brain, but to be honest, I just did not care much, living my busy life.