If my Grandfather were still here, I know what he would say to me. There wouldn't be much coming out of his mouth, but then again there never was.

I barely knew him. I met him once. But in those bright, crystalline blue eyes and through those dry, cracked lips, I came to know one small fragment of the answer to my life's problems.

What did he tell me? Your world is what you make it. It meant nothing to me then, but now I realize what was really being said.

The world is a ticking time bomb that depends on the choices you make.
It's a heartbeat monitor that could flatline at any moment, just like his did.

Tick
Someone's birth winds a new clock
Tick
An argument turns into something more
Tick
Words are leveled like guns, ready to tear someone's resolve to pieces
Boom
The bomb he saw that exploded in that basement in a country I can never remember the name of

Beep
Someone falls in love
Beep
The heart eventually breaks
Beep
All life must come to an end

It's over

Your world is what you make it. Don't screw it up.

Prior planning prevents poor performance. That's another thing I learned from the twenty-minute encounter that changed my life. Prepare for everything, and don't leave anything to chance. That only makes for bad quality.

Tick
The watch my father wears. It was his.
Beep
The last heartbeat.

Gone.