Did.

I am turning 25 this year.

This blog entry may come six months earlier than its due date, but still, this is the year that I turn 25 and just yesterday, I came across goals I foolishly made when I was 21. There were humongous goals and they were filled with hope and optimism, so much so that it made me wonder if I still carried that same sense of wonder in me today.

I was a cynical 21 year old at that time but I could also sense that under the tough exterior of pretending to see the worst in people, I was also quite an optimistic creature. I strongly believed that my best days were ahead of me and in a way, my 21 year old self was right.

I can only laugh and be in awe of her tenacious spirit and I couldn't help but contrast the person I used to be and the person that I am today.

I could only laugh at how emotional I was and how unstable I was since I was running on my emotions alone. I was a bit reckless but then aren't we all when we are young?

I also noticed that I was so optimistic that I ended up living in the future while ignoring the future. This was a thought embedded in me today and even more so when I visited this highly inspiring blog.

I realized that while daydreaming and setting goals for the future are exciting and critical parts of our lives, we must not get lost in them to the point that we do not enjoy the gift of today.

I have come across countless quotes and images on social networking sites to know that this is something we know but I often ask myself, is this the way we are living? Are we enjoying each moment to the fullest?

I never truly knew what that famous quote meant. For a time there, I always thought that YOLO meant getting drunk every night and going home with someone different every night (um, eww) but maybe this meant something more.

Maybe this means seeing our days for what they are, not days leading up to something big but small days that make up the beautiful tapestry of our lives.

We are often tempted to think that these days in between Sunday and Sunday are merely the days we have until our real lives start, but in all honesty, how do we define real life?

Why must we always put up for tomorrow something that we could do today? Why do we often wait for until everything is perfect before we truly allow ourselves to enjoy life? Why do we see our days as ordinary when in fact there are people who would give anything to have "normal" days like ours?

Why must we always long for things that are obviously meant for our future? Why do we often put off enjoying today simply because something meant for another time in our lives hasn't arrived yet?

This year, I would like to practice the act of enjoying moments for what they are and not for what I want them to be. I refuse to over analyze and over think situations that take their magic away. I would strive to enjoy this day for what it is and hope for better days to come. I will continue to believe that our best days are ahead of us but that doesn't mean we should just wait by the window until those big moments come alive.

Instead we should take advantage of the small moments presented to us everyday and refuse to dismiss our days as mundane. Instead, we should attack them with vibrancy and expectation of good.

We should never think of our days as ordinary but instead see each day as a vital puzzle piece in the culmination of our lives. I also believe that as we enjoy our daily lives, God sees this as an opportunity to bring in more good, that as we become grateful and as we enjoy the small things then we attract bigger things to come forth.

I believe we should do at least one thing a day to make our dreams come true, but we shouldn't be so caught up in the big moments of the future that we forget to appreciate the laughter in the little days and the memories we create along the way.

I understand that yes, there are things in life that are worth waiting for, but should we constantly be waiting for our life to happen? Shouldn't we actively wait instead? Do things that we can where we are instead of simply sitting and not doing? Shouldn't we evaluate our lives and find the balance between what we must wait for and what we should go after? Shouldn't we be able to evaluate the risks and go after the ones worth risking?

Oh, how beautiful and exciting life would be like if we stop waiting for the "perfect" moment to come and instead embrace what we have today. How thrilling it must be if people just did things instead of waiting around for the "right time" to do so and how truly liberating it must be to take a step, even just one tiny step, towards our dreams no matter how scary it maybe.

And maybe, just maybe, we wake up and see that our lives have become what we have always imagined it to be, not because we sat and wished, but because we went ahead and did.