What a beautiful, brave, inspirational young man. Ben Breedlove was 18 years old when he shot these two videos. In the videos, called This is my Life Part 1 and 2, he lets the words written on white rectangular cards do all the talking for him, accompanied by the instrumental version of the poignant Tears for Fears song, Mad World.

He ‘talks’ about a life-threatening condition he’s been living with called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and how he came close to death three times; what some would call near-deaths. The common thread running through each experience was that he saw a bright light and it made him smile and feel at peace.

In his last near-death (Dec 6th 2011), Ben shares how he found himself in a white soundless room without walls - very peaceful. His favourite rapper Kid Cudi was there too. They were both decked out in splendid suits and Ben was looking in the mirror thinking how good they both looked:

“The first thing I thought was Damn we look GOOD!”

Not just a beautiful young man, but a humorous one too!

Particularly touching was when he ‘said’: “I then looked at myself in the mirror. I was proud of MYSELF, of my entire life, everything I have done.”

Sadly, Ben passed away on Christmas Day, a week after he uploaded the videos. He suffered a heart attack.

Kid Cudi saw the videos and heard of Ben’s passing. Moved, he wrote on his tumblr blog:

“I broke down, I am to tears because I hate how life is so unfair. This has really touched my heart in a way I can’t describe.”

“Life is really f—- up sometimes, but I know Ben is at Peace, and I hope he gets a chance to sit and talk with my Dad. We love you Ben. Forever. Thank you for loving me. To Ben’s family, you raised a real hero, he’s definitely mine. You have my love.”

The videos are a very personal part of Ben’s life that he didn’t have to record and share, and yet he did, leaving behind a powerful, courageous and moving legacy as well as a testament to his spirit.

This is My Life (Part 1):

This is My Life (Part 2):

Rest in Peace, Ben. You were/are loved.

It seems the slow economic situation is having at least a few positive effects on society as a whole. The most recent good thing to come out of the economic troubles is a reported decrease in teen pregnancy all across the United States. The official report for teen births in 2010 finally came out and the decreasing trend continued but this time the rate decreased even more rapidly.

According to the research group only about 3% of teenagers end up in a situation where they have children, this is a 9% drop from the previous year and almost 20% lower than two years ago. Overall this is great news because it means that kids are being smarter and safer but at the same time analysts say the economic situation has played a major role in the decrease.

For the past 3 years teenagers have been having children substantially less often, each of the past 3 years has set a record low because many teenagers are simply no longer deciding to have children due to money concerns. This has led to a variety of downstream benefits and overall analysts and experts are simply happy to see the continued trend. No word on how much they expect the teenage birth rate to drop next year but analysts are hopeful that the downward trend will continue for the next few years which will help in a variety of ways and will eventually help lead to economic recovery.