Life is insane. I mean, it just is. Things happen quickly and things change. Tomorrow will bring things that you never saw coming. This used to scare me, but it really doesn't anymore.

Before I left home for my freshman year of college last fall, my mom used to tell me to get involved in as many things as possible, because college would be the best four years of my life and also the fastest. When you're on the front side of college and staring it in the face, you can't even fathom how you're going to make it through the first week, let alone the whole year. And that's exactly what I thought, too. I thought, I'll just take it slow, one thing at a time and ease into it.

Advice: don't do that. My first year of college flew by before I had time to blink. It was over just as soon as it began. So here's what I suggest: get busy. Jump into things. Be a little spontaneous. Actually, be really spontaneous.

Being busy resulted in late nights and early mornings, but you haven't experienced college if you don't suffer from a lack of sleep. Because sometimes late nights include writing papers, but other times it's going to Denny's with your friends at midnight after finishing (or at least making a little progress on) group projects.

My goal for this year has been to say no to as few things as possible, and say yes whenever there's an opportunity. Now this has to be taken with a grain of salt, because it's obviously impossible to always say yes, especially when it's midnight and your friend invites you over to watch a movie, but you have to be up for work at 6 a.m. And it's also important to take care of your mental and physical health. Yes, you need to sleep sometimes. But I decided never to let myself miss out on something or turn down an experience just because I "didn't want to do it".

This has been one of the most exciting and terrifying decisions of my life. You know why? Because God has a funny way of tossing things your way when you decide that you're not going to say no. By saying yes as much as possible, I have gained amazing friendships, created unforgettable memories, and done things I never thought I would.

For example, in two weeks I'm getting on a plane and flying to South Korea for a mission trip to teach kiddos English. Note, I have never left the country before, and I have never been on a mission trip that has lasted more than five days. When I was told about the trip, I thought, "Well I'm not going to say no, because I said I would do new things". Plus, I had been praying for God to open a door for a ministry that I could get involved in. (Little did I know that the door was half way across the world.) So I applied, and then I got an interview, and then I got accepted, and then I was terrified.

It's scary to step outside your comfort zone. Everyone knows this. We like to live inside our cozy little bubbles, with familiar people, and stick to what we know.

But there is no growth in that. Nothing ever changes if you stay the same. This is life, and life is not meant to be spent in the same place, or stuck in the same mindset, or doing the same old things.

So back to the point of all this; learn to say yes. Learn to jump into things. Life is not a spectator sport, and time goes by much too quickly.

I have no idea what will happen on my trip or what will come of it, but no matter what, I'm excited for it. Terrified? Yes. But more than anything, I am thrilled. Because I know that God will be in the middle of all of it, and I will have the chance to grow and experience a world that I don't know much about. That's what all of this is for. That's the point of this whole experiment. And that's what life is about.