“It’s the oldest story in the world. One day, you’re 17 and planning for someday…and then quietly, without you really noticing, someday is today, and then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.”

I remember 17 like it was yesterday. But at the same time, I feel like I have lived an entire lifetime since I stayed up with my best friends on the last night that I would ever be 16. It feels like a lifetime ago since I shook uncontrollably in lieu of taking my driving test, and listened to the encouraging words of my boyfriend that “if [I] fail [he] will never let me live it down.” Seventeen is an underrated age. Seventeen is the last year that you get everything from life without giving anything. Seventeen is the naivety to plan for a someday where your best friends are honorary students at your school, where you visit your boyfriend every time you’re making your way upstate to ski, and where you maintain a 4.0 GPA in the midst of it all. Someday doesn’t usually play out as planned. Two years later, someday is yesterday. Yesterday, my friends and I realized how impossible it is to find mutual free time for visits. Yesterday, my boyfriend and I just couldn’t make it work. Yesterday, I found out that sometimes in college, all of the hard work in the world will just get you a B. But this is my life. And it’s nothing like I planned for when I was 17, but it's still damn good.

“We spend so much time wanting, pursuing, wishing. For the most part, that’s okay. Ambition is good. Chasing things with integrity is good. Dreaming—as long as the chase doesn’t diminish what we already have: the goodness we take for granted, the people we take for granted, the lives we take for granted. My life is good.”

When was the last time that you took a deep breath, sat down, and thought to yourself, “I am content with everything in my life. I have nothing to work for right now.” Have you ever? No? Good. You should always strive to live up to your greatest potential; you should always want the most for yourself. You deserve to dream big, to see your hard work pay off. But never let your visions of the future cloud your appreciation for the present. Don’t live every day working for, waiting for, hoping for tomorrow. Don’t ever look back on your day wondering what you got out of it—wondering what the point was.

If you had a friend you knew you’d never see again, what would you say? If you could do one last thing for someone you love, what would it be?

“I’m sorry for all of the ways that I wronged you, and for attributing all of our failures to you. Thank you for teaching me to be strong and independent. Thank you for loving me with everything you had. Thank you for showing up at my house without warning, at odd hours of the day, to eat all of my family’s food and talk my ear off. Thank you for showing me what it meant to have a best friend.” Say yes. Get off your ass and say yes. Meet him at your old spot if he needs to see you. Buy her ice cream and deliver it to her because she has a cold. Spend time with them even though you have homework, and phone calls, and a life. Just do it.

Say it. Do it. Don’t wait. Nothing lasts forever.

Because maybe in the moment, you got what you wanted. Maybe you had an evanescent shred of satisfaction, appeasing your sluggish desires and staying in your bed. But in days, or weeks, or months, or even years, you will wonder what that “yes” could have changed. You’ll ache for the opportunity to say “yes,” for the question, for the person.

Make a wish and place it in your heart. Anything you want—everything you want. Do you have it? Good. Now believe it can come true.

Dare to want the moon. Be bold enough to swear that you deserve as much. Follow your passion, and show everyone how good you are at it. Your life loses so much shine, so much purpose, on the day that you give up on your dreams. Keep writing, keep singing, keep acting, keep studying. Do whatever it takes. Do whatever you can.

You never know where the next miracle is going to come from: the next memory, the next smile, the next wish come true.

So, this is my life. And it’s nothing like I planned for it to be at 17. Because at 17, I couldn’t have imagined the people I’d meet, the experiences I’d have, the memories I’d make, the feelings I’d discover. You picture your dorm room, you picture yourself eating at the dining hall, you picture yourself all studious in the library, you see yourself walking around campus. But you couldn’t have imagined the strangers that would so immediately become your best friends, congregated in your room, blasting music, doing each other’s hair and makeup, taking shots, and gossiping about the lives you’d make. You couldn’t have imagined the group movements to feast after day drinks; the unethical noise on the floor of the library that your friends would dominate; the boy walking next to you that would show you how much more is possible than you ever imagined.

But if you believe that it’s right around the corner, and you open your heart and mind to the possibility of it—to the certainty of it, you might just get the thing you’re wishing for. The world is full of magic; you just have to believe in it.

Knowing what you know now, understand how accurately it applies to the rest of your life. Don’t waste your time trying to picture a future that holds more than you could begin to hypothesize. Live every day to the fullest, and demand what you deserve from the world, and believe that the world will give it to you, if you fight hard enough. Believe that everything you’ve ever hoped for truly does exist, and that it’s waiting for you in places and times that you’d never begin to look.

So make your wish. Do you have it? Good. Now believe in it with all your heart.