The Legacy You Leave Behind: Was It Really You?

Your loved ones deserve your authentic voice

What if you suddenly die? Yeah, no one knows when it is time. In my body, all kinds of things are happening ‘automatically,’ but it can also ‘automatically’ stop.

We have 0 control over that.

Or maybe I’m driving to work tomorrow and have an accident that I don’t survive. I could suddenly become unwell while driving, or distracted. Of course, that could happen to someone else as well — which means I’m screwed too.

In short: life is completely unpredictable.

That reminded me of something, and I wonder what’s your perspective. The question that came to mind was:

How do you want to be remembered by your loved ones?

I suddenly had a very ‘strange’ realization as a writer, or perhaps it’s not that strange at all. My intuition tells me I should share this to create awareness. Because, yeah, perhaps you’ve asked yourself this question before — but what were you thinking about exactly?

If we don’t write our own content, what kind of legacy is it? There is actually nothing of you in it then, and I find that a scary and especially sad idea.

“Dad always wrote, didn’t he?” “Yes, it seemed that way, sweetheart. But in fact, he was actually more of a curator than a writer.” Because that’s what you do when you have your content ‘written’ 100% by AI: you curate it. You read it through (or maybe not even?) and then you slap it onto your canvas.

All those articles you wrote suddenly no longer have the value you thought they had. They may remind your loved ones of you, but they will always know that it wasn’t purely YOU. Doesn’t that just… suck?

I think it would be a heart-warming idea that later your children or other people who loved you would share stories about you because “that was YOU”. You could show them what was going on in your head and what you found important in life. You could show them what YOU STOOD for. But no, you chose the easy way.

“The path of least resistance.”

Is that worth it? Not really, huh? In fact, you owe it to all your loved ones to be unapologetically and authentically you — including in your writing.

Writing isn’t just about you, right?

Look, I understand you want to inspire, entertain, or help others. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. But in light of legacy, you might want to consider doing that yourself.

I have never experienced death (although I’ve looked it in the eye), but if, for example, you become terminally ill — would you not feel guilty on your deathbed that you were merely a wonderful prompt-master? You can do better. I know you can.

Listen, maybe this all sounds very dramatic, but it’s something that came to my mind, and my intuition told me to do something with it. So here you go. Use it to your advantage, or not. It’s up to you.