I haven’t written anything on here in ~3 years because I figured that I didn’t really need to write anymore. Well, a lot has happened over the last few years and the reason why I started this blog was to really open up my thoughts to something more concrete and real. I forgot how it felt to shed some weight off my shoulders through this outlet of writing. Everything that I type on this site is a piece of my mind that I have decided to share and for some reason, I wanted to hop back on the train today.

Over the past few years, there have been plenty of laughter, tears, and hardship. Not to say that these 3 years were either great or terrible but it was a phase in my life that allowed me to really reflect on how many incredible people I have in my life and how I should be thankful for my experiences – positive AND negative. It took me 23 years to get to this point in my life where I should be able to
“learn from it” – Dad.
He had said it my entire life and drilled it in the back of my mind. I never realized the power behind those 3 words because they humble you but also bring you hope. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this part of the story, but thank you Mom and Dad! I’ve heard of many people saying “I’m gonna raise my kids so differently, better, or more chill than what mine did – just watch.” Honestly, I would be LUCKY if I raised my kids with the compassion and selflessness that my parents had. It’s gonna be pretty tough to live up to those standards.

That was a pretty random excerpt that I felt like sharing but what I really wanted to write about how we have such short lived – long lives.

It seems like yesterday that I was in college classes eager to get my test scores back from the previous class, waiting patiently for the weekend because it was gameday, or getting antsy because intramurals were Thursday. This life we have seems to get away from us and before we realize it – 3 years pass by. I recently moved to New York during the COVID-19 Pandemic on March 14, 2020 and it’s already August 24, 2020. I feel like I blinked a few times, clapped my hands twice, and woke up. The past 5 months have flown by for the good and the bad, but I learned from it! New York City is a literal Oscar nominated blockbuster that is only featured in theaters by personal invite. Needless to say, I have had a great time up here and have met some of the most incredible people with captivating stories.

As a new resident of New York, I tried to become more enveloped in what New York was, the people in it, and how the city actually never sleeps. One of the ways that I have done this even before I moved here is read Humans of New York and the personal stories that these individuals have shared with us. Their instagram has erupted in a surge of short stories about their loved ones or themselves.

The story that was shared today was about a girl named Jenny. This story was told in the view of her sister that was 18 months younger than Jenny. I will not try and retell that beautiful story so please take some time out of your day to read it because that is the reason why the title of this post is Short Lived – Long Lives. Jenny was pushed by her sister to create a bucket list and really live life to the fullest. Many times in our lives, we push the things we actually want to do, off. Why? Multiple reasons –

“It’s not the right time.”
“It’s weird.”
“I have other obligations.”
“I can do it later.”

It’s not a very exhaustive list that I have here but you get the point. Stories like this really emphasize the importance of how we never really know what might happen for “I can do it later.” and that’s frightening. Jenny had Thailand on her list and she never got to go because she ran out of time, but she did get the dog she always wanted and that meant everything in the world to her. Many of us want to glaze over our emotions but they’re almost as valuable as what we do with our time because if it weren’t for our emotions, we’d be as normal as the vending machine in your office that works half the time.

We need to embrace our emotions (positive/negative) and learn from them.

Take the trip,
kiss the girl/boy,
live your life.

I guarantee, you will not regret it.

Short Lived: Having not acted on an internal inclination because of a string of excuses, but then realizing it’s too late to do all of the things you pushed off because life got in the way. Now you have a laundry list of things you wish you would’ve done/acted on.
Long Lives: All of us yearn to have a long life on this earth and seem to forget about our current lives and the capability we have being as young as we are. We always think “we’ll have time later.” When in reality, we probably won’t have time later due to other obligations.