No matter how the question is asked or perceived, the answer defines everything from that point on. Do you respond to the college boy’s plea and give him your real phone number or do you set him up with a rejection hotline? Does having 2,345 Facebook friends define who you are in the realm of cyber stalking and filtered photos? What’s your number of ______ (fill in the blank) mean to you? That’s the question that determines how our lives proceed or how they do not.

Our hearts beat around 72 beats per minute, we blink about

1,200 times per hour, and we breathe approximately 20,000 times a day. That’s a lot of involuntary actions that our bodies undergo in order for us to survive. If our numbers for these compulsory activities didn’t take place, life would probably be much more difficult. But, it’s the voluntary actions that we pursue and the numbers linked with these actions that characterize the individuals we are set out to be.

Let me break it down for you. How many times do you smile in a day? Is it enough times that people deem you as a happy go-lucky kind of kid, or is there a dark aura that subconsciously surrounds you that keeps others out? What about the number of times you genuinely laugh with your friends in a week? You know, the kind of bellyaching laugh that if you continued this uncontrollable giggle, Zac Efron’s undeniably sexy abs would start to surface on your own tummy. Or, how many times a month do you just take some time for yourself that is selfish and completely focused on you? Probably not enough.   

In a generation that values the number of Instagram likes more than the precious moments spent captured in that picture itself or the increasing amount of money we have in our wallets compared to what we do with that money, it’s easy to neglect the numbers that should really matter in our lives. These important numbers ranging from how many times you say “I love you” to your parents to the number of times you say yes vs no when asked a certain question to even the amount of minutes you take out of your day to do what you love.   

The question “What’s your number” can be so vague and at times misleading. But, as I said before, your answer to this question decides what happens from there on out. Whether it be the number of times you listened to Tswift’s album on repeat, hours you diligently worked at your job to pay the rent or the people you have hooked up with in your past, it is these millions of millions of numbers led by completed decisions that created who you are. Aside from your involuntary functions, your voluntary processes, responses and emotions portray the individual and original you.   

Although math was never my strong suit and numbers aren’t really my thing, there are numbers worth sharing. Share the number of times you compliment someone in a day. Congratulate yourself on that stellar credit score. Be excited about the high grade point you received when you worked hard in that ridiculously difficult online class. Let everyone know about the pounds you shed from eating healthy and exercising your butt off. Enjoy the number of pages you read in books with thousands of brilliantly written words.  There are so many numbers that define who you are to this world. So, make sure that the numbers that express who you are the numbers that count.