What I've learned.

This past week has been a bit daunting at school, since every class I have has covered evolution but I actually learned something new, or maybe I should say it's been put into a new perspective. This perspective per say is one that I never really considered but found really interesting. One of my teachers (Dr. Marius van der Merwe) made the following comment "You are the outcome of past generations of organisms, of ancestors, that have never failed in being successful. They were always the successful ones; they were always the ones that managed to survive and make it into adulthood and have offspring. How far back can you trace this highly successful line of ancestors of yours? You can trace it back, all the way back, into deep time, 3.5 - 3.8 billion years ago when life originated on this planet. That's pretty impressive. I mean, you are the result of some pretty impressive organisms that lived in the past. They never ever failed to reproduce themselves. If you yourself fail to get a husband or wife and fail to get children, you'll be the first in a long line of ancestors that fail."

Now this information was not new to me but once again put into context that in order for me to be successful and be considered a survivor, not only do I have to have children, but that I have to keep them living until they reproduce and have offspring. I'm not sure if this is possible on some days and find myself weight the options. Survival? Or should this be the end of the line?