When it comes to talking about life and death, a lot of people choose to avoid beginning the conversation because they think it’ll make death come sooner. For those that work at the Lower Cape Fear Hospice and Life Care Center, talking about death is how they live their lives: preparing themselves and those close to them for how they want their death to be arranged, and doing what they want to do in life before it comes to an inevitable end.

Kimberly Paul, vice president of Communications and Outreach at the Hospice center, joined efforts with Candy Chang and her “Before I Die…” campaign after she’d heard about it through a friend back in April.  Paul wanted to find a way to engage people in beginning the conversation about death by doing it in a more whimsical way. This campaign was just what she needed.

“She’s a graffiti artist in New Orleans and she ended up painting an abandoned house with chalkboard paint and wrote ‘before I die I want to…’ out of closure for how to deal with her friend’s death, and this idea was birthed,” Paul said about how Chang created her project.

After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was in shambles and lives had been torn a part. The people needed a way to come together and focus on living their lives again. By creating this board, Chang found a way to get people to write out their hopes and dreams with chalk in a public space.

Through Chang’s website, candychang.com, anyone can buy the tool kit used to spread the project to different locations. The Hospice center bought a tool kit, but changed the format of their chalkboard by designing it into a hexagonal shape: five sides for writing out what everyone wants to do before they die and one side for explaining what the Hospice project is about, as well as background on Chang.

“I want my life to be an example of how to look at death. I’ve been here for 13 years at Lower Cape Fear Hospice Center and what I’ve learned is that the more I learn about death, the more I want to live my life this way. I want to inspire people, I want to engage people, I want people to know how beautiful they are and see that for themselves,” Paul said.

The boards were first brought to Cape Fear Community College in downtown Wilmington. They remained there for 30 days before they were moved to UNCW’s campus. Located outside of Trask Coliseum, the boards are displayed for everyone. The Hospice center found the most involvement to be during the school’s basketballs games and other athletic events.

“We’re hoping that the college students will take a bite and really look at the message, and go home for the holidays and then talk to their parents about it, and then vice versa their parents will talk to their parents and then it becomes a ripple effect,” Paul said.

One student who engaged in the project is junior Mary Cossu. Cossu found the project to be inspiring, yet difficult to come up with what to write. There are so many things that people want to do before they die, and this project makes them really think and focus on their main goal in life.

“When I first saw the ‘Before I Die…’ campaign I was actually in Tennessee at the Bonnaroo Music Festival where there was this huge wall covered with goals and ambitions from people all over the world. It was so inspiring to see everyone coming together and now that the same positive effect is here on campus it really reminds me everyday to continue to search for a deeper meaning of life,” Cossu said.

After the board has been on campus for 30 days, the Hospice center will then move it to a different location throughout the Cape Fear region in New Hanover. It will circulate throughout the New Hanover region for a few months before being moved to Pender County and then Brunswick County.

“Everybody has a bucket list and it’s a way to engage, but also have fun. My thing is what’re you waiting for? Everybody’s like well I want to travel the world, but I mean I just don’t have the money. No one said your bucket list wasn’t going to have consequences, and you can travel that world if you want to,” Paul said.

Paul wants to change the world with inspiration and that’s what she wrote in chalk on the “Before I Die…” boards. These boards and this campaign are helping her accomplish her hopes and dreams.

According to Paul, too many people use the journey of life to find themselves when all they really have to do is look in the mirror because there you are, and all you need to do is be the best you can be.  If you just sit back and open your eyes your life will indeed find you.

“Don’t you want to slide into home plate, which I think is death, and look over your shoulder and be like man that was a really fun time, instead of what someone didn’t do or what someone should have done, or demanding things,” Paul said. “It’s all a part of the process and the older I get the more I learn that sometimes there are things not worth fighting for, and I think for me life is one of them; I want to live it.”

Paul encourages everyone to come out and sign the board. She wants the entire thing to be covered in chalk by the end of the 30 days, so if you haven’t written out your hopes and dreams yet, what are you waiting for?