I was recently asked "when do you feel most alive?" as I did not have an immediate answer or one I felt confident at all in, I began to think.

What does being alive mean? What does being even "more alive" mean?

I had no idea and I am not sure if I understand it yet. To me, feeling alive is when you feel like you may die. My thinking is that at that point in time you know you are alive because you don't want to die.

Other people's answers usually include being with the people they love or doing the things they love, but for me, it is the complete opposite. It is the times I'm scared to try something new and I feel my heartbeat in my mouth and the butterflies in my stomach that makes me wonder if this is safe and what happens if I die?

I am not a fan of heights by any means, let alone rollercoasters that go upside down, yet these are the times when I feel most alive because I am so nervous of the opposite of living. My best encounter with this crazy and hard to explain feeling is when I went "cliff jumping" into a lake and stood at the edge of this cliff for close to 15 minutes.

It's not only the scared and panicked feeling I get but it's also the feeling I get after. The adrenaline and fact that I get to pat myself on the back for pushing past what was thought to be my breaking point are to me when I feel most alive.

Being able to overcome what I am scared of and feel all of the senses makes being alive so fun. I live life every day like I did on the edge of that cliff, scared, vulnerable and afraid of the leap. And every now and then, I make the leap.

I hope to make the jump more often in life because THAT is when I feel most alive.