Have you ever thought about how ironic it is that we spend every moment of our lives dying from the moment we start living? I got to thinking about how some of us chose to live our lives and some of us chose to just sit and let time kill us. I don’t mean to be dark, depressing, or a pessimist but I got to thinking, do I live or do I die? What does living look like?

To live

When people say, "I just want to live," usually they mean they just want to do what they want and not have anyone control them. As much as I understand the feeling, I also don’t understand why to them that is living.

Living to me is so much more than being free to do whatever you’d like. It’s so much more than not having someone to tell me what to do.

Living is learning who you are, what you stand for and going out and doing something about it. It’s falling in love, making mistakes, spending days watching Netflix and eating because we all need mental health days, but it’s also taking beautiful hikes, swimming in a lake, going to concerts, finding a place to look at the stars and admire them. Living is driving with no destination, driving just to listen to music; that is living to me.

It’s not about control over your life, it’s learning to live inside those controls instead of dying with them.

A friend of mine told me what living meant to her. She said, "[Living to me is] accomplishing your goals. And not just your shallow goals, but your deep goals. Working towards something greater than you. Having your heart fulfilled, and surrounding yourself with people that love and support you.”

She then proceeded to tell me what living to her was in her personal life, what her goals were and what she plans on doing to accomplish those goals. She is a girl who lives, a girl with passion.

To die

Now I wonder, what does dying look like? I’m not talking about falling over onto the floor gasping for air with a cherry face, I’m talking about the opposite of living life and life more abundantly.

To me, it would seem to be as someone who has no goals in life, someone who sits around waiting for life to happen to them. Dying is letting time go by and not going out and doing the things they love, standing up for the things they stand for. It's living, but not striving for more.

To live or not to live

Do you live to live or do you live to die? I can’t help but believe that I am somewhere in between. I have goals, I am not actively pursuing them at every moment of every day. I strive for more, I don’t just sit around waiting for life to happen, but I am not constantly on the go. I am not constantly doing anything and everything to live. You don’t have to live to the fullest, but don’t sit around and let life pass you by. Go out, be who you want, make goals, live to be happy.