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When Breath Becomes Air - Review


A poetic piece of literature about a young man who is also a doctor who probably would have found the cure to something or at least saved thousands of lives but finds out when he is 36 he has terminal cancer and only lives to 37.

It's sad.

Like, really sad.

But it's also incredibly enlightening.

Dr. Paul Kalanithi's memoir changed my life.

Although the other day I got a little lightheaded and spiraled into a panic attack thinking this could be my last day on Earth and questioning whether or not I did it right.  Life, that is.

That's what this book will do to you.  Not the panic attack thing, that part is on me, but this book will make you take a long, hard look at how you are livin'.  Will make you question your relationships and whether or not you are giving them the attention they deserve.  It will actually make you NOT roll your eyes the next time you hear live each day like it's your last or see a Carpe Diem tattoo next to that tribal on that tanned bicep.

(Ok, you will still roll your eyes at the tat.)

It will make you love harder, feel deeper, live life fuller.  Breathe in and breathe out with a bit more gratitude.  Sweat less over the small stuff.

I couldn't recommend When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi enough.  But I do warn you - make sure you are in the right frame of mind to read it.  His writing is so eloquent and his mind was so beautiful that you feel the pain of his journey but it's a sweet kind of pain.  A well thought out kind of pain.  A pain, that if taken in the right stride, can make you a better person.




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