In life I've learned to not only appreciate the little things but to seek out the big things. The moments that leave you breathless, that make you stop and just live in the here and now with no inhibitions. For me, I have felt this feeling many times and was recently reminded of it after finishing a good book. At first, I was confused. How can something so simple as closing a great book make me feel so good? You know when you read that last sentence and everything that has led up to this point all of a sudden feels complete? It's that lump in your throat where you feel a combination of joy, sadness, frustration, and a thirst for more. It's a feeling that you cannot experience doing anything else. I imagine skydiving might have a similar effect, as bizarre as it sounds. But think about it, people don't skydive to feel joy, they don't skydive to feel scared, they do it for that feeling in the pit of their stomach that cannot be conjured by any other experience. It's that combination of excitement, fear, happiness, helplessness. It's your first kiss. Your first goal scored in a soccer game. Hearing your favorite band perform live. Your first plane ride. Walking down the aisle.

These are the moments in life that are really worth living for. Maybe there's more to it, maybe there's less, maybe it's all just entirely up to the individual. Yeah, I may be just another guy laying in bed with too many thoughts to process into words but I'll be damned if I haven't sparked a memory for you. One that reminds you that you are living life and life is loving you. There are endless amounts of treasures to discover throughout a lifetime and taking a minute to appreciate these gifts will make you feel so, so good.

But don't be fooled; life sucks, too. For every moment of over-joyed splendor, excitement, and smiling eyes, there are thousands of dull moments, dozens of losses, and enough hardships that will make you think twice about the beauty of life. At the end of the day, you may have come up short, had the worst luck, a rejection, a rude comment, a mistake, a loss of a loved one. You might be fighting an addiction, avoiding abuse, regret, shame, hatred, depression -- you name it. But at the end of the day when you are faced with the option to let all of those things weigh you down, you can't do it. You won't. Because hopefully you will remember your first kiss. That good book. Their smile. That time you skydived. That laugh. The song you danced to at your wedding. There are so many things in life that are here to make you happy and it is up to you to let them.

So, take an inventory of your life and think: Am I happy? If you are, awesome. Maybe you could even be happier. You don't have to go too far to make it happen.