Get a grip on your life

I watched a movie the other day that involved a young, successful, single woman dying of a very dangerous type of colon cancer. It was called “A Little Piece of Heaven,” and I admit in crying like a little girl throughout the last half of the movie. Movies that have such an impact on your day, let alone that very moment, definitely pull you to some realizations or thoughts.

I began to wonder what people would do if they had an illness that was out of their control, shortening their quality of life and their days to live. Would they be happy with their decisions, accept their failures and accomplishments? Moments are something I’ve found that we can let slip between our fingers and slide out of our thoughts faster than a camera flicker.

We let so much time run right past us thinking that it is so forgiving. Going hour-by-hour and minute-by-minute through our daily lives on autopilot, time just flies by without our acknowledgments or regard. We control so much more of our lives than we realize. Those rare moments and those great and awful experiences can be captured or can escape like little convicts from your very grasp.

You don’t have to lock yourself into submission being terrified or threatened by the world. Being intimidated is normal in experiencing new things, people and places but you can’t let that fear hold you back. If you never get out into the world and get yourself out of that comfort bubble of yours, you may never grow as a person.

If you manage your time and responsibilities, throw those books back on the shelf for few hours, delay laundry one more day and immerse yourself into the day that gets laid out in front of you the moment you wake up. With a free mind and weightless shoulders, give yourself a break to form those memories and grab those moments by the strings. Memories only fade if you let them and moments only snap free if you don’t embrace them like there won’t be another sunrise or sunset.

Don’t be that old gentleman or lady rocking in their chair on the porch, wondering “what if?” Don’t end up feeling incomplete and having an unfulfilled life with empty spaces you could have filled with smiles and laughter, or even tears and pain for that matter. Living is learning. If you get so wrapped up in the arms of the clock that’s taunting your every glance, how are you truly spending the ONE life you get?
Slow down to take a minute, or a million, to just breathe and embrace opportunities and moments that are right in front of you. Even if you have to fight for an opportunity, it’s worth it majority of the time. Take on the world and yourself and let what happens happen.

Suzy is a junior majoring in journalism.