Life is too short. You’re born, spend two or three years until you begin obtaining memories, and in a flash you’re living in your second decade, confronted with a new array of stress and near death experiences. As a teenager you soon experience life into adulthood. You learn to drive; become stressed with French oral exams; you get a job; end up forming bad relationships with the wrong people at the wrong time and at some point or another are confronted with experimentation of illegal substances. With so many opportunities to fail at life, there is little time to “sweat the small stuff”. Every moment is rare and should be treated transcendentally. Beyond our comfort zone, our educational and financial obligations, there is an open world with untapped potential.
Personally, I was not taught to act dangerously or out of my comfort zone. Like any other New Jersey, suburban, Jewish girl, I was sheltered and taught the way my parents wanted me to see life. As I grew older, I found it difficult to confine to the shielded culture I was raised in. The thought of myself bungee jumping out of a plane is a heart wrenchingly painful thought for my mother, and a heart wrenchingly exhilarating opportunity for me. Parasailing? Done it. Zip lining in Haiti? Nailed it. Walked into the Dead Sea with an open cut? You bet your sweet beans I did it. And why not experience these things? If I have the means and opportunity to be happy why would I let any obstacle prevent me from doing so?
A self-proclaimed life lesson doesn’t make it any less significant than having been told to me by a teacher, parent, or motivational cat poster. Living life with exuberance is not my most important moral belief but I find it my most self-seeking. I strongly believe individuals have the right to seek happiness and feel that humans have the natural right to choose their own path. My path is still undetermined. I have no idea where I’ll be living, who I’ll marry, or even if I’ll lose weight for my new years resolution. I do know that accidents happen. Tomorrow could be my last day on earth and it won’t be spent stressing out about speaking in my French class. Goals for tomorrow at the break of dawn: Grab a strawberry wild Jamba Juice, WITH whey protein; text that cute boy I’ve had a crush on since freshman year; call my parents, text my brother, bark to my dog over the phone; get my nails done at a ridiculously overpriced cost. And then, when I get struck by lightening or attacked by a squirrel that was getting way too close to me on the sidewalk, the last thing I’ll get to remember was a day of bliss rather than that stupid thing I blurted out in French class.