Seize The Day!

by Adarsha Shivakumar

Tomorrow we'll seize the day and throttle it! ~ Calvin & Hobbes

If today were my last day on Earth and I could share 500 words of brilliance with the world, here are the important things I'd want to pass along to others... All of us trip and fall at points in our lives. Some of us stay down, too scared from the pain to get up, or just too unwilling to work to get up. Some of us get up, but we are hesitant to go forward, and just stay where we are. Some of us get up and move forward, slowly, but never with the pace and confidence that we earlier had in our stride. But there are a few of us who get up, dust ourselves off, and go forward stronger, learning from our mistakes and ready to take on any obstacle.

We fear falling down, and consequently slow our pace or stop completely so that we don't get hurt. We fear pain, so we shorten our goals so that we can't hurt ourselves in trying to achieve them. But, is it worth giving up our dreams to avoid all pain? Is it worth giving up our hopes and goals to avoid something that is inevitable? Should we just lock ourselves away, along with everything we dream of doing? No. We cannot. We should not. We must not let fear dictate our lives.


We must not give up our dreams so easily. Too many of us live for others. Build our lives around what people want us, expect us, to be. Conform, mold, tear apart our true selves, our true ambitions, dreams, and goals, just to appease others. Your life is not somebody's puppet, but you must take the strings into your own hands. Do not give weight to other people's jeers, their insults. Take them in stride, reflect on them, but don't let them dictate your actions, your choices, your life. Because in the end, it doesn't matter what they think of you, what they see you as. Brave. Terror. Cold. Joyful. Heartless. Savior. All that matters is what you choose.

Adarsha is a fifteen year old Indian American out to change the world as the executive director of Project Jatropha.