Why The DailyXander "Deep Talk Series"?

The idea for my “Deep Talk Series” started when I was 24 years old as a vigil volunteer for AdventHealth Hospice Care in Orlando, Florida. During the training to become a hospice volunteer, I performed an exercise with the class in which we were all given a paper that said, "My Bucket List. BEFORE I DIE, I WANT TO…". My Bucket List (see photos) are the activities that continue to influence how I live my life, which continues to evolve. I then proceeded to fill out my answers, and after, we went around the class and shared items we wanted to accomplish. It was fascinating to hear from others who were much older than me and who had a shorter list than me and were sure of what they wanted to do with their lives.

This process made me think deeper about how I perceive my life and what I wanted to do with my time on earth. I began to feel even deeper into how others perceive the question, "what do they want to do before they die?" On numerous occasions, I would have the opportunity to sit with individuals and comfort them in their times of need as they didn't have any family or friends with them as they were in the process of dying. From these experiences, I then began to ask individuals this question and film their answers. I found that asking this question can put one’s life into perspective and about how they are deciding to live it, and this fascinates me because it allows me to understand an individual on a deeper level.