I want to be real, but I can't even be real with myself.

I go through life scared. I go through life constantly wondering "what if." I have urges to live life as if I'm going to die tomorrow and I preach going after whatever it is you want even though I can't even do that myself. What kind of person am I? Someone who can't practice what she preaches? I feel so gutless sometimes.

I wish I could be the person who takes risks and does whatever she wants without fear of what might happen next. Even though I feel this way, there's a piece of work out there that makes me feel as if everything will be okay. I find myself coming back to my favorite book of all time, "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson. The book changed my perspective on life so much that I'm going to get a tattoo of a quote from the book somewhere on my body because the message of the book altered the way I see the world and showed me the way I want to live.

The last page reads:

"And it doesn't matter.

We remember the past, live in the present, and write the future.

The universe may forget us, but our light will brighten the darkness for eons after we've departed this world. The universe may forget us, but it can't forget us until we're gone, and we're still here, our futures still unwritten. We can choose to sit on our asses and wait for the end, or we can live right now. We can march to the edge of the void and scream in defiance. Yell out for all to hear that we do matter. That we are still here, living our absurd bullshit lives, and nothing can take that away from us. Not rogue comets, not black holes, not the heat death of the universe. We may not get to choose how we die, but we can choose how we live.

The universe may forget us, but it doesn't matter. Because we are the ants, and we'll keep marching on.

I want to live life to the fullest and do whatever makes me happy, but that's so hard sometimes. What if I were to die tomorrow? I don't want to have any regrets. I don't want to look back on my life and wonder "if only," as hit tv show "Castle" wonderfully said. I don't want to leave things unsaid and have my life be a life full of worry and regret.

Beautiful things come from taking chances and doing things you thought were impossible.

For example, last summer, I told a certain somebody how I felt about them after we went to dinner. I remember sitting in my closet, heart racing, and palms sweating as I dialed their number. I had never been the type of person to put myself out there. Instead, I would feel all sorts of things for someone but I would keep it on the inside until it went away. This time, however, was different. I knew I couldn't live like that anymore. After telling this person, I found out that feelings were reciprocated and it suddenly became the start of something so unfathomably remarkable. I got the chance to have so many firsts with my best friend. I got the chance to fall in love and have memories that I'll get to keep forever, even though it ended. It felt so good to be so open with my feelings and to be upfront about what I was thinking.

Now, present day, I have forgotten how to be that person. I have forgotten how to be someone who takes chances and makes mistakes because of fear.

Fear: A four-letter, miniscule word that holds so much power.

Why do I let fear control my life? Why does anyone?

Perhaps it's fear of rejection. Perhaps it's fear of not being enough. Perhaps it's the fear that everything could turn out so miserably wrong that we end up talking ourselves out of the things we want to do most.

Wouldn't it be incredible if everyone stopped being so scared all the time? Wouldn't it be incredible if we could live like there is no tomorrow? Because in reality, there may not be a tomorrow. You never know.

So take this article as a call for action. Take a chance. Realize that you can change your life at any second if you really wanted to. You could profess your feelings for someone. You could drop the class that's making you miserable. You could buy yourself those pair of shoes you have been dying for. You could book that trip to New York and save towards it. You could do anything.

Do whatever makes you happy because in reality, what do you have to lose? You never know what the outcome could be.

We need to stop wasting our time waiting for life to happen when it's happening right now.

Take a look around.

Life is happening all around you and you're missing out by waiting around to be happy, while you're waiting around for something to happen.

Make. It. Happen.