We spend our lives waiting for Friday, for summer to start, for graduation, for college to start, for “real life” to start, to get our dream job, to meet the love of our life. We spend our lives waiting instead of living our lives.

Today I’m sitting in class just like any normal day. I haven’t done most of those things that I listed. But today was important  because I spent it knowing and acknowledging that those things will come but they will come in the future. Dreading things that will happen in 10 years or even next week won’t make my life any better now. I’m 18 years old and someday I won’t be.

Don’t get me wrong, I have my fears for the future and am excited to see what the next part of my life brings, but at the same time — that point may never come. I could go to bed tonight and never wake up, or something extreme could happen and my life could never be the same. If that happens, I don’t want to look back and say that I was waiting for the next best thing to come along, not realizing that while I was waiting for the next part of my life, I was also waiting for life to pass me by. In 15 years I could be married, I could have children, and I could have a thriving career. For all I know at that same time, my parents could be gone, my friends could be scattered across the globe, and my life could be could be completely different and instead of waiting for the future I’ll be wishing to go back.

I’ll be wishing to go back to that Friday, that weekend, that summer, those holidays to come, for senior year, for college to start, for college to end, for “real life” to start, to get married. I’ll spend my last days wishing that I hadn’t waited and I would find myself doing it again.

After all is said and done, I’ll be lying on my death bed waiting… still. Waiting for the time when I’ll  finally pass away. That’s an awful life to live – a life of waiting. The real world doesn’t come on your first day of school, on your first day of college, on your first day at your first real job. It doesn’t start when you get married, when your first child is born, when you retire, and it certainly doesn’t start when you die.

Your real life started the day you were born. But every day you spend waiting for something miraculous to happen, you miss out on the life happening around you.