I would not want to live my last days asking questions and getting answers that I have no time to change. I understand that it is important to engage in the process of philosophical questioning. It makes me think about the benefits of living life inside the box, outside the box, and how society can make decisions for me.
I began to ponder, “Am I living my life this way’’? But in the same thought, I grasped that I can change this path that seemed all too familiar. Looking a little further, I had seen that it all starts by breaking down the fence that surrounds many of us. To be honest, we all have a box inside that we choose to open and close from one time to another. Inside our world is where we are safest. We learn what we think will benefit us in the future, take in what we assume is right, and hear what we want to hear which are the facts. Why should you think when we don’t have to? People for many generations before us have done the thinking which leads us to believe and feel the thinking part is over. There are so many facts out there that we are consumed by, leaving us to believe that if we know the facts, no one can touch us. The more facts we stack inside our gates, the better, but our gate is similar to a closet that gets over stuffed. The closet becomes so stuffed that unknown reality around it starts to become overwhelming
Family, love, religion, death, truth, and reality are among many of the things that exist in the unknown which are many people’s biggest monsters. People are terrified of these things because they really can not control any of them. Facts don’t state that their relationship would go a certain way so they avoid it. People want all the money, power, and respect but mostly desire control due to much of society thriving by these rules. Along with those four things come lies, cheating, and selfishness. Society today has placed material things as status. Many have become slaves to the dollar, because without it, we feel we cannot fulfill a good life.
Ivan Illych was a living example that those things do not bring happiness. I also assume that living like this will aid to putting that wall up against the truth among other things. Ivan’s slow death allowed him to do some serious reflecting on his life. He soon starts to realize that a lot of things that went on in his life were simply wrong. His mind was consumed with facts, work, and social views. 
I was consumed this way a while ago when I was trying to be the ‘Peoples Champ!’ I drove a Lexus Ls400 that sat on 20’inch chrome rims, trunk full of speakers and a TV for show. I wanted everyone to look at me and say, “He’s in control.” But after some soul searching, I learned quickly that I attracted the wrong crowd. In that example, we both tried to do things that kept us from the unknown. The problem with living life this way is that when something comes from the unknown, there is not a way that you can really begin to solve for it. It is like throwing yourself in a hockey game with a minute left and saying, “Go get em boy, win us the game!” I never played before, let alone ice-skated. Do you think that I would really win the game? Well, that was Ivan’s situation and there was no way that his game could possibly be won with his lack of knowledge about the truth. Everything seemed to crumble in his world because the more that he questioned, the more he began to see how wrong he was.
Before the unknown like death enters my life, I want to have no regrets. I know I have the option to change my thought pattern, to live out of society's box, and most importantly, to live outside my own box. The philosophical questioning process is not a hard one if your mind is open to change and the vulnerabilities of the world. Also, your pain will only be a physical one, which is how I would like to leave this planet. Mental,
physical, and spiritual torture was all through Ivan’s body as his last days approached. There was not a single thing that he could change in his past, simply because he did not have time. Unfortunately, if people do not learn how to think philosophical, many will lead the same life Ivan did. Lucky for me, I now understand how to question the many things that took place in my life and I still have a chance to change things so that I will not be reflecting on my life in the way Ivan did.
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