“Significant” is pretty subjective overall. In the end, there will always be critics to whatever you do. People in the US have been brainwashed into thinking people like GW and Christopher Columbus were good people until people connected the dots and realized they were in fact not. I won’t be the one to cure cancer or end war in my lifetime, but the most I can do at this point is to give someone else hope.

Just being a role model for someone or treating someone like a human being is still significant if you think about it. People get attached to the romanticized idea of being hailed a hero for something “significant” that happened, but usually being that kind of stereotype involves a type of sacrifice. This is why comic book heroes usually have tragic back stories. It is not so black and white.

As cheesy as it sounds, our actions really do echo in eternity.

It helps me to think of everyone who was here before me, and be grateful for what i have.

And to see that I am the next in line, to make the world just a little better, than it was when i was born, in the ways that I am able to.

Trying my best, still, not sad since I won’t (be able to) care anyway.

No

It helps me to think about it like this:

The shittier the world’s circumstances, the brighter and longer a single good deed will shine.

I’m kinda sad that I probably* won’t get to see how this story ends. Do we make it as a species? Do we end up in the Star Trek utopia, or do we wipe ourselves out with our own hubris? But I’m not sad of afraid of dying itself. My legacy will be doing right by my kids and hopefully setting them up to live better lives than I did, and I’m OK with that.

*If I do live long enough to see us wipe ourselves out that will be pretty shit, ngl.

No. That’s a fact of life, being sad about it doesn’t do anything and only harms me. So stop worrying about legacy or level of significance and just try to make the world better any way you can.

Lol, I’m probably dead in 30 years or less. I’m over half way there because of a major health condition I lost the genetic lottery on. It is what it is. I like to think I’ve raised a child capable of empathy, that’s all I can do.

Well, I take this as a challenge. Both the “dying” thing (I’m young enough I suspect we will reach Longevity Escape Velocity before I’m old enough it wouldn’t help me - and if such technology were to be hoarded, I’d advocate actively leaking any such information and enabling mass production nya), and the “doing something positive to change the world” thing.

So I wouldn’t say it makes me sad. Instead it makes me determined and extremely stubborn (I also enjoy myself, though - not here constantly obsessing over death even if I consider it highly unethical and a major violation of morphological autonomy that must be resisted by any means necessary).

No… I stopped giving a fuck about what people of me decades a ago.

You don’t have to earn a Nobel Piece prize to leave a significant positive legacy. You can plant a tree, help someone or teach a skill to a kid…

No , the heat death of the universe will sort it all out in time. Doesnt mean i dont want things to improve during my time here for us and future generations.

My kids are my legacy. Whether that’s positive or negative is up to them at this point.

Regardless of that, I used to be terrified of dying. When I was younger because I hadn’t experienced or accomplished anything. Heck, George Lucas planned nine Star Wars film’s and I couldn’t die before I’d seen them all! (In retrospect, maybe that wasn’t as important as it seemed at the time.) Getting older it was because my family wasn’t ready.

Now I’m in my fifties and my body is already falling apart. My dad and father in law are in better physical shape than me due to back and joint issues. My kids are pretty close to self-sustaining — as much as they’ll ever be.

I’m as immortal as someone without big ambitions can be. I’ll never have a statue or exhibit in a museum or book written about me, but I’d be pretty happy with a park bench in a scenic spot. I don’t want to be buried, but it would be nice to have that as a place anyone who cares to could go and remember me — not some gaudy marble surrounded by death.

What more could I want other than people who love me and remember me for a time? And between now and the end, I’ve got things to keep me busy. Computer games and learning woodworking. Travel. Continuing to grow as a person. I’m not done living by any means, but I’m okay with dying. I imagine it’ll suck at the time, but all things end. Even the universe.

We really can only do much impact to our immediate area, most significant legacy positive legacy building is creating and propagating movements. If you want to feel like you’re making positive change then do things that help the people around you, the smallest things like shifting to local mom and pop shopping vs big retail for a couple purchases can help keep money local and supports them raising their families there in your town. Same as just picking up litter you might see as you walk through a park, you never know who’s watching and who it might influence to do the same or to stop littering over time. Not everything has to be macro but all the small decisions do add up to a pretty large change around you that will be noticed.

Not really. It’s mostly old age I worry about - not dying.

I’m however slightly optimistic that I might be able to reach so called longevity escape velocity during my lifetime due to advances in medical science and life extension therapies.