54 pages • 1-hour read
Life's Too Short
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Symbols & Motifs
Traveling
Content Warning: The section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, substance use, and mental illness.
Traveling symbolizes the characters’ capacity for or resistance to Living in the Present. Vanessa is an influencer who has traveled the world creating content for her YouTube channel before returning to her hometown. Believing she was developing ALS, Vanessa quit her job, cashed in her retirement, and traveled the world so she could experience different places as part of her end-of-life plan because she assumes that she will not live for long. Despite traveling to live in the present moment, traveling also prevents Vanessa from making long-term plans and settling down in a relationship—something she navigates as part of her character arc.
By contrast, traveling is something that Adrian is resistant to, which represents his initial inability to take risks and let his guard down. Vanessa encourages Adrian to take time off work, go on a trip, and see new places. He resists, saying he doesn’t have time to travel due to his work schedule. Additionally, Adrian is hesitant to travel initially, as flying triggers panic attacks—something he attributes to his father’s abandonment growing up. This symbolizes his fear and struggle to deviate from routine in favor of new opportunities.
However, by the novel’s end, he overcomes his fear of flying with the help of therapy; he travels for months across the world to find Vanessa and tell her he’s adopting Grace and that he loves her. By the novel’s end, he and Vanessa travel the world together for 10 months, which symbolizes Adrian’s newfound ability to live in the present moment with Vanessa by his side. As the narrative ends, he embodies the carpe diem philosophy Vanessa has maintained throughout the novel via traveling.
The Internet
The novel explores the complexities of living in a world where online presence can influence and even define one’s life, and the internet both connects and alienates the characters. Vanessa uses her YouTube channel to chronicle her travel experiences and share her honest thoughts about her uncertain future with her viewers. This vulnerability has garnered her a loyal following, making her a virtual celebrity. This is both a blessing and a curse, as she says, “My fame was isolating. It was almost as isolating as my reasons for being alone” (96). The internet thus symbolizes connection and solidarity, as Vanessa uses her platform to raise awareness and funding for ALS.
However, Vanessa, like most content creators, isn’t above using clickbait to generate interest. Clickbait is content designed to attract attention and encourage people to click on a link, often by sensationalizing or exaggerating the truth. The novel incorporates clickbait in its chapter titles, as each title could be the subject line of a viral YouTube video, blog post, or news article designed to pique people’s curiosity enough to click. Vanessa’s staged and fabricated relationship with Drake is also clickbait. Using a relationship as a form of content and entertainment for an audience reflects the performative nature of life in the digital age, where appearances often take precedence over reality. As Vanessa explains to Adrian, “[T]here’s a certain level of theater that goes into what I do” (255). This demonstrates how she sometimes manipulates people’s perceptions for views of her videos.
Vanessa’s relationship to online life becomes complicated as she discusses Adrian in a video, as she feels uneasy about monetizing their connection. Since Adrian isn’t often online, he remains distant from Vanessa’s online persona. Watching her videos triggers an emotional breakdown as he learns about her odds of getting ALS. After the breakup, Vanessa goes silent on her channel and detaches from social media, making it hard for Adrian to reach her. The internet spurs their reunion as their romance goes viral. Vanessa chooses to delay restarting her channel, favoring presence over performance and releasing travel footage later to support ALS financially.
Mortality
In her author’s note, Jimenez explains that the inspiration for Vanessa’s character comes from Claire Wineland, a YouTube creator who died from cystic fibrosis in 2018. Claire used her channel as a platform to spread awareness of the disease and inspire people to live intentionally. Though Vanessa isn’t presently ill, the looming possibility that she may develop a debilitating disease shapes her every decision. This ever-present threat of ALS forces her to live with a heightened awareness of mortality, informing her choices, relationships, and worldview. As she says to her viewers in her first video, “I might be dying too. And dying changes things” (285).
Rather than allowing fear to dominate her, Vanessa transforms chronic illness into a reason to seize joy. Thus, mortality is a motif that develops the theme of Living in the Present. She sees her genetics not as a tragedy but as a reason not to waste time on fear, pride, or perfectionism. Her attitude centers on acceptance paired with intentional living. She builds a life based on experiences, connections, and gratitude, rather than long-term stability. Through Vanessa, Jimenez shows that living with chronic illness or the possibility of it means balancing hope and grief simultaneously.
Through Vanessa’s character, Jimenez illustrates how a health condition isn’t just personal to the individual; it also affects everyone around them, especially regarding caregiving and end-of-life decisions. Vanessa witnessed her grandmother and aunt in pain and later supported her sister during her decline. This history weighs heavily on her, and she carries the grief of caring for her loved ones as they decline and worries that her family and Adrian will have to do the same for her. She reflects, “There’s not going to be a miracle. At least not in time for me” (292). Vanessa combats this anxiety by doing all her end-of-life planning alone, ensuring she won’t be a burden. As Adrian supports Vanessa through the potential of developing ALS, he must confront what it means to love someone whose future is fragile and uncertain and respect her wishes regarding treatment and care.
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