Platteville

Life is given and taken everyday. Some people get so engulfed into their own materialist lives that they don't realize what they have until it is gone. Everyday I hear, someway or another, 'Live Life to the Fullest'. This phrase has been thrown around and used so much in today's society. People don't respond when they see it; people just see through it. A lot of people question how to we live life to the fullest? Does this statement really mean anything anymore? Many teenagers my age try to live life to the fullest by spending alot of money on expensive clothes, trying to hang out with 'cool' people, and conforming to the media masked world. They spend all of this time trying to be something they are not, and by the time they are 50 they ask themselves where did my life go? I have seen this situation happen all around me. I see it in my friends today and I have seen in my parents friends. I tried to conform to this life as well, until I realized that this life was not right for me; this life didn't have meaning for me.

Once I had the realization that life is flying by me everyday, I tried to figure out what makes me most happy. When I was trying to conform, it seemed like everyday I would wake up with a bad attitude on life. I was frustrated having to play this person that was just like everyone else; trying to fit it. I figured out what made me happy; waking up everyday and being excited to start my day, being able to laugh and enjoy my life. From this I made a drastic change in my life, I became less worried about what people thought of me and started to look for the good things in my life. During the time of my conformity, I lost all of my real friends. I had to work hard to rekindle my old friendships. Today this is one thing in my life that means the most to me; my friends. They are my rock and support. I also put a lot of my energy into sports. I love volleyball, basketball, and track. Sports are the thing that make me happy; to be able to play with a team you love and still have fun is my favorite thing of all.

This process that I had to go through in order to figure out what life meant to me will always stay with me. Every day I get up and am excited to spend the days with my friends and participate in the sports I love. It has become my goal to smile at least 5 times a day. I have realized that being happy out weighs being the conformed teenager in today's world.

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