Living Life to the Fullest

Time is a precious resource. It’s one of the only things in life which you can’t gain. In other words, the amount of time you have on earth will always decrease at any point in time. If you want to hear an even more negative way of thinking about it: for every day that passes by, you are a day closer to dying.

Anyway, I consider myself pretty lucky in terms of time. I somehow find myself graduating from university at the age of nineteen, and I am now working as a software developer in Boston at the age of twenty. While peers my age are still busy  attending lectures in college, I find myself already accumulating experience in the real world. To be very clear, I strongly believe that college is important—in fact, I regret not being able to spend more time in college. However, this whole graduating from college early has made me feel like I’ve gained an extra two years in life. By the time my peers are graduating from college, I would have had nearly two years of work experience in the real world.

With this in mind, I feel a great responsibility to make good use of my time, and hence the title “seize the day.” I’ve recently started committing myself to three guidelines: travel more, be healthy, and try new things.

Travel More

For me, traveling has always been, and will always be, one of the biggest joys in life. You get to learn so much about the world and gain so many new experiences through traveling. Sure, you can probably learn about the world through other mediums, but in my opinion, learning is always better accomplished by doing. Besides, what is there to lose? Even if your experience exploring somewhere new wasn’t the most enjoyable experience, you can at least learn something from it and have stories to tell.

The fact that I’m young, relatively healthy, and not a broke college student anymore has reignited my desire to travel. Some people might be hesitant to travel because they assume it’s expensive (though in my opinion it depends on where you travel to and your style of traveling), but as the famous quote says, “Traveling is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” If you’re going to spend a boat load of money, might as well spend it on something meaningful.

Be Healthy

I’ve never really paid much attention to my health until about a year ago, when I realized I was gaining weight from eating so much junk food in college and not exercising enough. I know this sounds like just about every other young adult, but I’ve  finally decided to take my health and well-being seriously. I figure while I’m young, it’s probably a good idea to set a good habit for myself. After all, we only get one body, and we don’t get a replacement if it’s damaged. Sure, in the future, we’ll probably have better technology to cure and take care of illnesses; however, that doesn’t mean that we can just fully rely on technology to take care of our body.

Try New Things

Being only twenty years old, there are so many things in life that I have yet to experience. For instance, I have yet to ride a camel in the desert, I have yet to go backpacking across Southeast Asia, I have yet to fall in love, and so many more things. We only get to live once, and it would be a shame to not experience it to the fullest.

Even though I’ve graduated from college and have started working full-time, to be honest, I’m still unsure with what I want to do with my life. Though I definitely want to stay in a field somewhat technology-related, I don’t know if I want to be a software developer for the rest of my existence. Though I’m currently living in the greater Boston area, I don’t know if I want to live here in Boston, or even in the US, for the long run. There are so many uncertainties in life, and while I’m young, I want to learn as much about myself as possible.

In summary: life is short. Make the most out of it.