You think about the future. You do it pretty freely – Where will you be in five years? What will your children look like? What stories will you tell your grandkids? You are confident that you will get to live all of those milestones moments in your life.

Your days are limited.

There are those in their 30’s, 20’s, or even younger, or even much younger, whose terminal diagnoses have seriously diminished their chances for reaching all of those milestones, at least in the same way that others do. When you hear these stories, you tend to think of the unfairness of it all.

You are wrong in thinking that if your life is shorter than that of others’, that this automatically means it is less than or less important. The length of one’s life has very little to do with its impact and with its quality.

It is not the length of your life that counts for the most – what matters is how you live it.

Sobiech died on May 20, 2013 of complications from osteosarcoma, at his home in Lakeland, an eastern suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota, seventeen days after his 18th birthday.

In May 2012 his doctors informed him that he had up to a year to live. Sobiech recorded the song ‘Clouds’ about his battle with cancer, and released it as a YouTube video in December 2012.

It went viral, surpassing 3 million views at the time of his death. It currently has more than 13 million views and counting.

I fell down, down, down
Into this dark and lonely hole
There was no one there to care about me anymore
And I needed a way to climb and grab a hold of the edge
You were sitting there holding a rope

And we’ll go up, up, up
But I’ll fly a little higher
Go up in the clouds because the view’s a little nicer
Up here my dear
It won’t be long now, it won’t be long now

When we get back on land
Well I’ll never get my chance
Be ready to live and it’ll be ripped right out of my hands
And maybe someday we’ll take a little ride
Go up, up, up and everything will be just fine

We’ll go up, up, up
But I’ll fly a little higher
Go up in the clouds because the view’s a little nicer
Up here my dear

It won’t be long now, it won’t be long now
If only I had a little bit more time
If only I had a little bit more time with you

We could go up, up, up
And take that little ride
We’ll sit there holding hands
And everything would be just right
And maybe someday I’ll see you again
We’ll float up in the clouds and we’ll never see the end

We’ll go up, up, up
But I’ll fly a little higher
Go up in the clouds because the view’s a little nicer
Up here my dear
It won’t be long now, it won’t be long now