In the opening of “Live your life,” T.I. claims that what does not kill you will only make you stronger. I, on the other hand, espouse a different belief: That which does not kill you only delays the inevitable. T.I. of course is really affirming his personal mantra of carpe diem, but seriously, you’re going to end up dead. You might as well partially seize the day, so you can maximize the amount of days you’ve got left to seize.

Look at Neil Patrick Harris, he drops X in “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” his character in “How I met your mother” wears a suit — he’s the human manifestation of sheer awesomeness. He keeps it real, he lives his life, he’s a magician and he moderates. That’s the key here is the moderation — go wild … but not too much.

Example: Drinking is enjoyable. Getting hammered — also enjoyable. Getting hammered, doing lines of coke with Rick James and then street racing — not so much. You see, the last option ends in death, which is definitely not positive. Not dying is really the goal here, so keep it safe.

Another example: Going to Amsterdam with friends — so far so good. Going to Amsterdam with friends and sampling some of the local agricultural produce — still going all right. Getting so high you accidentally destroy an original Van Gogh thinking it was an assailant — technically it’s not that deadly, but the Dutch authorities will be none too happy.

Doctor Seuss might tell you about the places you will go and Thomas Wolfe might say you’ll never go home again, but neither actually says what you might do. Wonder why? Because no one really knows — Percy Shelley didn’t make it to his 30th birthday, Einstein lived until he was 76 and Joe the Plumber is now a journalist. I’m not saying don’t have fun or rock the suburbs or whatever you do, but keep it low. Body bags don’t look flattering on anyone.

—Thomas Shattuck is a sophomore in the School of Engineering.  He can be reached at thomas.w.shattuck@vanderbilt.edu.