Because I love the movie, and just saw it while on my last shift at movie weekend...

Quotes from Dead Poets Society

Because we are food for worms, lads. Because, believe it or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold, and die.

They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you. Their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils.

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are all noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman: "O me, o life of the questions of these recurring, of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities filled with the foolish. What good amid these, o me, o life? Answer: that you are here. That life exists, and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.
What will your verse be?

"Come my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world
for my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset.
And though we are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way. Even though it may seem silly or wrong, you must try! Now, when you read, don't just consider what the author thinks. Consider what you think.
Aside: I do this all the time: in history, in life, when talking to friends, everywhere. Didn't you ever wonder what I was sitting and thinking about, when I'm staring off into space? ;) And I think half the impact of a story or poem is in how you react to it: how close to home it strikes, how closely you identify and relate with the people or situation in the tale.

"Truth. Truth is like, like a blanket that always leaves your feet
cold. You push it, stretch it, it'll never be enough. You kick at it, beat
it, it'll never cover any of us. From the moment we enter crying to the moment we leave dying, it will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream."

I brought them up here to illustrate the point of conformity: the difficulty in maintaining your own beliefs in the face of others. Now, those of you -- I see the look in your eyes like, "I would've walked differently." Well, ask yourselves why you were clapping. Now, we all have a great need for acceptance. But you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own, even though others may think them odd or unpopular."

One of the Truly Techer Moments
MEEKS
Me and Pitts are working on a hi-fi
system. It shouldn't be that hard to,
uh, to put together.
PITTS
Yeah. Uh, I might be going to Yale. Uh,
uh, but, I, I might not.
GLORIA
Don't you guys miss having girls around
here?
MEEKS AND PITTS
(smiling)
Yeah.

Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone. Sure there's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for.

"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life, and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived."
-Henry David Thoreau

Yes, it's a movie (and highly emotional at times), but there's a lot of wisdom in there. Ever since I saw this movie early in high school, some of these statements have been at the back of my mind (well, along with the idea that being an English teacher like Keating would be really really cool ;). Life is fleeting; make what you can of the time you have now. By extension, pursue what you love in life - your career, a significant other, hobbies, etc. I suppose that's been my motto for at least the 1.5 years, and perhaps that's partially what's sustaining me now, right before the huge uncertainty of life after graduation. I don't know where I will be 9 months from now; at this point I don't even know what I'm doing this summer, though I'm pretty sure I want to find a job and stick around here with friends. But I cannot afford to pull a blanket over my head and sit in a corner weeping for Sam and the dear friends I might lose to distance, for the possible rejections I could receive for grad school and jobs, for being uprooted from a place I now call home. I can only live today, and hope that with time and work, everything will fall into place, that new opportunities will arise to follow yesterday's defeats and disappointments.

Carpe diem. Seize the day, lads. Make your lives extraordinary.