So, what’s the difference between surviving and living? I pulled the following from Merriam-Webster.com:

Survive- : to remain alive : to continue to live, : to continue to exist

Live- : to be alive, : to continue to be alive

Seem quite the same don’t they? They both talk about being alive, living, existing. Not much different from each other. I disagree, and through the years, I told my students about my thoughts on the difference.

Although all beings exist or live, humans have the ability to choose how they will live. Animals, for the most, survive. They eat, drink, sleep, procreate and spend idle time doing stuff, but . . they really can’t choose to better their lives.

Humans can. To me, in the human world, surviving is simply having enough to stay alive. It might be as simple as a tent, food from a dumpster, and water from a faucet. It might be more. It might be having a roof over one’s head, and walls around, with electricity, food, and nothing much more. That, to me, is surviving.

Living is something else. As I’ve told students in the past, “Living is having more than enough pay your bills and put food on your table. Living is having the opportunity to buy toys and play. That’s living.”

I survived some years ago. Actually, it was me, my wife, and my, then, new son. I was recently married, and had adopted my wife’s son. I had graduated college and had started teaching. We lived in a 2 bedroom trailer and couldn’t afford to run the AC. We live in Texas, it was hot, it SUCKED. We had box fans in all the windows.

Did I mention that it was hot? Back then, we knew what surviving was.

I drove to work one day, hoping I had enough gas to get me there, I had no cash in my wallet, no credit card, no debit card. I was hoping to make it to work, and borrow money to make it home. I wasn’t able to make it to work. I coasted into a gas station and the merciful attendant allowed me to pump 10 gallons on credit.

I was surviving. I swore that I was going to to work to the point that we could actually live. We have for some time, now. Me, my wife, my grown son, my grown daughter (yeah we had another, once we started living a bit), and their two spouses. We’ll never go back to just surviving.

How about you? You surviving or living? If you’re only surviving, what are you doing to work toward a better life?