The realization hit me in the most abnormal of ways; while studying vocab. Oh, how rude of me, let me introduce myself first. I'm Tasha, –short for Natasha– the most lethargic, apathetic, and spiritless teen on the planet. A bit more than your average nerd, my best friends are my books. I live off Nutella and ice-cream tubs. I absolutely adore studying. Oh, the thrill I get out of new information! At school, I drift off from one class to the next, completely ignorant of both time and people. My interactions with people are on the surface. The more you indulge with people and love and get in with them, the more prone you are to getting broken and hurting. Better be safe than sorry. So no, thank you very much. I'm a solo creature that keeps to itself. Or at least I used to be all those things.
All of this changes on one fateful weekend. Well, it's not the weekend per se, but you get the point. I was studying some vocabulary online as per routine. The extracurricular words were a ton more than the average 14-year-old's level, but I could cope. I hit one correct word after the other, nodding my head to the beats blasting from my headphones. Prognosticate. Correct. Winnow. Correct. Provenance. Correct. Live. What?! This shouldn't be here. Maybe the word has some other meaning? (Unlikely but whatever). I quickly google define live and click on the first link I see. The entry is as follows: Live (vb): 1- be, be alive, breathe, draw breath, exist, have life. 2- be remembered, last, persist, prevail, remain alive. 3- occupy, settle, reside. 4- be happy, enjoy life, flourish, luxuriate, make the most of life, prosper, thrive. 5- 'live it up' (informal) celebrate, enjoy oneself, have a ball.
Strange, those are the same definitions I knew. I relooked at the meanings, and as I did so, a new thought smacked me. I wasn't really living. I was only existing —barely. No friends, no acquaintances, no deep relations with my family, no fun, no emotions, no happiness. No life, I realized with a start. Staid, that was the word. My life was too staid.
What is life, really? A role you had to fulfill? Studying and gaining trophies and ranks? How do you succeed in life? By living till you were ninety-something? The music morphed into a slower tone.
One should add life to years and not years to life. Your teens should be the most thrilling and active years of your life, and what was I doing with mine? Wasting them, I realized. I was wasting my life. Happiness is a choice not a capability. And I haven't chosen. Yet.
YOLO is a powerful phrase. You Only Live Once. Much too true. Life is too short not to live it to its fullest. Where's the action, the adventure, in mine? That's what you use books for, a voice called from the back of my head. My conscience. True. I was impressed by the heroes in my books. So much so that I forgot to do what they were teaching me to do. Live. I had to live. I needed friends. I needed happiness. I needed adrenaline. I needed life.
I hopped up from my laptop, feeling like one who has been reborn. I wanted to go do anything. I fetched my sweater and running shoes and skipped downstairs. Mom looked up upon my arrival. "Where are you going?" This was a first for me. I didn't exactly go anywhere. "On a mission to appreciate life's finest details," I responded with a smile. She nodded encouragingly and offered me a smile which I gladly returned. My parents have tried to persuade me out of my misery a lot, although in vain.
I flung open the front door and commenced jogging. I ran and ran, feeling the cool air in my face, the long-needed adrenaline rush, and pure and utter joy. I wasn't planning on a specific destination, but a plan soon formed in my mind. I rested my hands on my knees, panting, upon arriving. The Skateboarding Park.
Truly, life is too short to live in grayscale, and I was gonna paint mine in rainbows. YOLO, so make sure you do so in full-scale; take risks, have fun, be happy, breathe, LIVE!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
********* A/N This was a little something I had written for school, so I didn't put any tremendous effort in this. Don't get your hopes very high. ;) Hope you enjoy.
