• As I write this, it is almost three AM. I am laying in bed with no sound around but the whirl of my fan and the usual creaks and pops from the house. In this peaceful darkness I begin to think. I think about how fast time goes, and my family, and...becoming a super hero and saving the world from a meteor made out of mashed potatoes.

    Okay. So not ALL thoughts at 3 AM are philosophical.

    But those that are, are the same thoughts that plauge me night after night after night as I stay on the brink of sleep and awareness and fall into dreams where I come up with schemes where I have the means to grow stalks of green beans that are shaped like nice jeans.

    They feel just as nice too.

    But the thoughts that come prior aren't as nice. They're thoughts of events to come in the short and long run. My brother leaving for grad school and making me the only "kid" in the house to deal with the parents. The next years of my college, graduating and the time after. Finding a career as the crunch time grows near dreading the words that will come to my ears that hopefully won't come for millions of years. Your grandparents passed away. Your dog had to be put down. I'm sorry. I'm so...so sorry. And this fills me with sadness and dread. I start to dread the future. So much so that I lose track of the present.

    Something I've done so many times in the past.

    Knowing that time is fast moving and fickle ) much like a teenage party-girl, going from one rager to the next with PBR in hand with her other hand holding up a stiff middle finger) makes what happens each day that much more magical. For you see, when you realize that you can't stop time or even slow it down you begin to embrace that very same fact. Everything comes with more meaning. The large family gatherings and epic nights like highschool prom to the quick visits to grandma's house for cookies just to say 'hi' after looking around at Toys R Us for an hour and the one night you spent at the local coffee shop with a few of your closest friends just talking about any random thing that came to mind becomes filled with all of the magic and life-changing morality of your favorite Disney movie.

    Which mine, for the record, is a tie between A Goofy Movie and Hercules.

    The best thing about having so many great people as friends and family is that you know you're not alone. People with many different points of view can line up and fit on the same plane. They all have the same battle scars because they want to party and will fight for the right. They all know what it is to be an eight year old, sitting in bed at 2 AM over the summer and trying to see your GameBoy color to play Pokemon with that dinky little light!

    So do all that s**t you see in the bland, overly shared and reblogged posts with quotes from Julia Roberts movies. The pictures of flowers with fancy fonts that say things like "love like you mean it" and "live as though you're going to die tomorrow" and "I got 99 problems but a b***h ain't one." Some of my younger friends might claim they could sum this up with a "yolo." A four letter acronym the more reckless use to justify irresponsible behavior. However, the motto is correct. You do only live once. The meaning and how well you wish to live is up to you. There's no need to worry. You'll be just fine.

    Just give it some thought.