Somedays I’m fine. I go to work, I come home, I eat, I go to bed. Other nights I stay up all night trying to calm this roaring within me. I hear it sometimes in music. Other times, though, it is just a whisper. A little invasive parasitic thought. It takes root in my head and I can’t let go of it. I feel like “I’ve got to formulate a plot or I end up in jail or shot
Success is my only ______ option, failure’s not” (Lose Yourself, Eminem). But I have nowhere to turn this amazing sense of duty to a very simple problem: How can I be remembered?
Not just remembered. Most everyone is remembered after they die. That doesn’t feel like enough. The urge rages on inside screaming “more, More, MORE! Do something to be remembered forever. do something so big, so incredible that no one, no one can forget.”
Then, as I sit pondering, the feeling fades. The urge is gone, and in its place is left a feeling. A strange feeling. One that is both a longing for that urge to return, and to satisfy it. But it is too late. It is gone. As will I be. And with me, so too will all memories of me, be lost.
Very nicely worded. Memorable, even. 
I, too, would like to leave some kind of legacy. No kids, all that. I guess it’s a pretty common feeling. Of course, 9 billion people can’t all become household names.
My dad died several years ago, and I find that there are fewer and fewer people around to remember him, and it depresses me. Sometimes we go through boxes of old pictures from his side of the family, which we didn’t mingle with much, and we don’t even know who’s who and there’s nobody left to tell us.
I work in a field (software) where the proverbial 15 minutes of fame have shrunk to about 37 seconds and are still shrinking. The enduring names in technology are mostly the businessmen, not the inventors.
Science is very fragmented and specialised nowadays. No more room for an Einstein, but you can become famous among peers.
Even sacrifice in the line of duty will get you a nice engraved plaque but won’t make you a household name.
What’s left?
- Politics and activism
- Movies
- High-profile sports
- Whatever category Elon Musk fits in
- Music
- Visual arts and design
- Architecture (I like this one. Durable art with an obvious purpose.)
And then there are the fields where you can decide to be famous:
- Large-scale philanthropy (but you have to get rich first)
- High-profile crime
- High-profile terrorism
Choose wisely!
Sounds like a pretty selfish attitude. All about “me Me ME!”
I am content to live a good life, hopefully harming few to none and enhancing the lives of some people I interact with. Why I would give two shits what people think of me after I pass is beyond me. Tears in the rain.
Remembered?.. What have you done for me lately?!
Hate to break it to you, but most people aren’t even remembered after they die.
Remember the Dane Cook bit? He ran up to a kid eating an ice cream cone and smashed it into his face screaming “Remember me forever!” and you know, that kid probably will. Maybe not a good plan, but it’s one you could probably achieve, at least in the short term