"You have your whole life ahead of you"

"If this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is not better than a game  [of private theatricals] from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight,–as if there were something really wild in the universe which we, with all our idealities and faithfulnesses, are needed to redeem….For such a half-wild, half-saved universe our nature is adapted."

-William James 'Is Life Worth Living?'

Taken from a commencement address by my old supervisor/mentor at BU in which he tows a line about 'possibility' - the romantic and the tragic - contained in the phrase "you have your whole life ahead of you." He remarks on the parallels between parents and professors.