Before I die

Forty feet of dreams.

Tell my father’s story.

Surfing on the internet years ago, I came across an engaging public art project called Before I Die, which uses walls within our cities to help people grapple with death and meaning within communities. After the death of a loved one, artist Candy Chang went through a long period of grief and depression and realized how much our society avoids discussion of death. In wanting to start the conversation she covered a crumbling house in her neighborhood with chalkboard and paint and stenciled it with the prompt “before I die I want to _____” so anyone walking by could pick up a piece of chalk and share their personal aspiration in public.

Chang posted photos online of the response and the idea caught fire. Since that first installation in 2011, over 4,000 Before I Die walls have been created in 70 countries. Each has offered a snapshot of shared anxieties and hopes and collective joys and struggles. In what has been hailed as one of the most creative community projects ever, Chang hit on a question that very few are asked, and yet everyone has an answer to.

I was eager to visit the Before I Die project constructed on the Tampa Riverwalk by the Leadership Tampa Class of 2016. Thrilled to have the opportunity to shout out my personal desire to “tell my father’s story” I grabbed a piece of orange chalk before heading out the day after the installation was complete. As I came upon the 40 feet of black plywood, it was a beautiful site. In just one day, every inch had been filled with handwritten dreams.

As I wrote my answer, I thought of my dad who spent his life helping people to think about, talk about and face the inevitable. He would have loved it, and I imagined his words among the freshly chalked answers—Before I die I want to be ready.