Do old people dread death the way I dread the end of summer?

I doubt it.

Let’s ignore the way you assume I can speak for old people everywhere. We took a vote and I am definitely not the voice of the olds.

I will attempt to answer this anyway, as a non-old person who has thought about things that will make you feel better.

You don’t have to dread death any more than you have to dread school.

Think of school as your summer companion, or your shadow in the sun. If you want to get the most out of your summer, don’t forget that it is ticking past and most definitely finite.

Your shadow knows.

You won’t always feel this way because it absolutely gets easier to ignore the dread.

As we get older we know more and more people who have died and we become acquainted with death. I’m not sure how it makes itself at home in our minds, but over time it just becomes less dreadful. We see it around and it’s familiar, like that one ugly shrub that all the neighbors have for some reason.

Maybe it’s similar to being afraid of illness just until you actually have one. Once you are ill, you realize that it’s just another thing, another little obstacle. The sun still rises and the trash collection happens. All that worry energy was wasted.

Whenever you feel that dread, think about what you can do to make your time worth your time instead.

Be brave. Live hard.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death. —Leonardo da Vinci