[jfengel]

I think that everybody ends up "living their lives on their own terms" in one way or another. Life presents facts to you. If you wish to go on living, you adapt to them. If you choose not to go on living, that's your choice, but I think it's misleading to imply that other people aren't making their own choices -- including, most of the time, choices that bring them to stay alive.

I don't mean that as anything negative about McCandless. It's just that I think it's worth saying that other people aren't also lesser for making their own different choices. They are also doing their best with the difficult problems life throws at you, giving you lots of options and few clues.