A non-cliche way to say "seize the day"

[oracle1]

<p>Wow… this is definitely a hot-button issue. Yes, i agree, the idea too is cliche… i promise this isn’t the thesis of my essay or anything, but it concludes the essay perfectly…so I ended up going with seizing the moment and then writing a few more sentences so it wouldn’t be like I ended with a cliche…oh how cliche :)</p>

[pugfug90]

<p>Just don’t say it. Stupid intellectually superior aphorisms.</p>

[gzhang]

<p>“take advantage of a potentially beneficial situation”?</p>

[TheVeganActress]

<p>haha, that one could work…</p>

[TheVeganActress]

<p>or…
grab and hold onto the period of time in which the sun is shining on your part of the world and people are generally awake.</p>

[krnpsychopath]

<p>or how about. Live life and kick ass.</p>

[lil_killer129]

<p>

At this point, a senior high school student in American education system should at least know what the idea is and its alternative: “carpe diem” is. Ask any 12th grade student of what “carpe diem” is and most will tell you want it means in English: It’s a novel yet overused saying that “Life is precious”.

I am a HS senior and don’t know what “carpe diem” is. I have never heard of that phrase. Where does it come from?</p>

[88keys]

<p>Quote the musical “Rent.”</p>

<p>Say something like “Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.”</p>

<p>Or “No day but today.”</p>

<p>Or “525,600 minutes, how do you measure, measure a year? In daylight, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee,”</p>

<p>■■■■ I love Rent.</p>

<p>Wow Im a little obsessive. Good luck</p>

[BirdKiller]

<p>

Birdkiller, i dunno why you highlighted my quote. You seem to be pretty offended. All i’m saying is that it is pretty interesting how the first few replies argee with each other, then after someone refutes it, the next couple thread somehow share the same opinion as that person. It could be coincidence, but i’ve seen that many times. Especially on those “official SAT, ACT threads” in which one thread might all agree on choice A, and the other thread unanimously agree on choice B.

</p>

<p>No I wasn’t offended, although I understand why you would think so, just my style…that’s why on many replies I have to add in those smilies :D</p>

<p>Nah, I guess I read it differently I guess >_></p>

<p>

I am a HS senior and don’t know what “carpe diem” is. I have never heard of that phrase. Where does it come from?

</p>

<p>I have no idea where that phrase came from, I think Courer’s post tells its origin. I first heard it after reading “Dead Poet’s Society”. It’s stuck into my mind after several people referred to it including one of my teachers…</p>

[coureur]

<p>^^ “Carpe diem” comes from Odes 1.11 by the Roman writer Horatius (better known to us as Horace).</p>

<p>Interestingly, it is sometimes (and IMO more accurately) translated as “pluck the day” instead of “seize the day.”</p>

<p>“Carpe” implies grasping with the hand or plucking, like plucking an apple from a tree rather than seizing something violently or vigorously. We see the same root word at work in the naming of the hand bones - the carpels.</p>

<p>The verb “to seize” in Latin is “rapere,” which is also the root word for such English words as raptor, rape, rapture, and rapacious, which all involve the concept of seizing something.</p>

[ChaosTheory]

<p>Take with force a mass of 86,400 seconds.</p>

[bendrumfront]

<p>how 'bout just “seize the day?”</p>