Are you up for the challenge?

Life. 
Are you up for the challenge of living?  Do you know what it means to live?
It means breathing.  Laughing. Crying. Getting angry.  Happy moments and sad.  It means to lose and to win.  It means to be at the top and the bottom.  To be blind and to see.  To be deaf and to hear.  To love and to hate.  To be lost and be found.  To grow and learn and struggle and follow whims.  To take chances and change.  To bend and break.  To give and to receive. 

Life is whatever you want it to be.  When you stop and look around what is your life? Is it a happy one? A sad one?  One full of good things or bad?  It doesn't matter.  Either way it is life.  And your story is your story.  No one else can live your life.  You live it.  You think of it what you want.  You can do with it whatever you want.  There's a big world out there, it may seem small, but there's still oceans and miles between us all.  It takes trains and planes and boats to get to everywhere.  Walking distance shouldn't be where you stop.  Push yourself to go FURTHER. Find new things, explore places you've never been.  Go to places no one can go.  See a new sunset, watch a new sunrise, see the constellations you've never seen, sail on an ocean you've only read about.  Pick a place on a map and go there.  There is nothing stopping you.  Only you can stop you. 

Just do it.  Because you are only alive once.  You can't get a single breath back.  Stop worrying about what everyone else worries about.  This whole world is going to pass away.  Nothing is ever going to stay the same.  Everything changes.  People live and die.  We all have something we feel called to..

Me?  I woke up this morning.  That's always a good sign.  Today as I drove home from an eye appointment I had a realization that I feel like I'm ready for more.  I think this year is going to be a good year.  I've been on this earth for 30 years 22 weeks and 4 days.  What have I accomplished in that time?  Well.. I can't really say I've done all I want.  I've raised a child.  I've lived on my own, I've loved and lost.  I've traveled to another country, and seen a different part of the ocean.  I've learned how to be a good employee, and to be a reliable employee.  I've made mistakes, and asked for forgiveness.  I've seen birth and death.  I've cried, and laughed, and gotten angry. 

My life is pretty normal.  I've seen and done things that are not new.  But there's so much more I want to do.  I want to see the sunset in California. I want to see the world from another hemisphere, and swim in another ocean.  I want to eat food that I've never tried, from a place I've never been.  I want to sleep under different constellations, and see another world of people. 

This world is so big.  And I've only experienced a portion of it.  And to think that my life here in this small town is enough is like saying a few bites from a table filled with food is enough.  I want more.  And as long as my heart beats, and I am physically able, I will do more. 

I'm absolutely sure of this.