Life's too short.

It's a sentiment we've all heard before and something that is always at the back of our brains. But what are we doing about it? The only time we really discuss how truly short life can be is when tragedy strikes.

I am no exception. I was scrolling through some social media site when I ran across a photo talking about how life is too short, and to do all these things. Eat the cake. Cut your hair. Stay out too late. Just don't care. It was one of those cheesy quotes that manages to make you think. I took a screenshot and intended to send it to my friends. A sort of motto for the summer.

I never did, and I was with them a few days later when we got the news that a boy from our high school had passed away in an awful accident. I was shocked and heartbroken, but I couldn't help but think of that picture. I tried to wrap my head around how that could have been my best friends in the car with me. Or my brother. Or just anyone else I knew. It was a weird and anxious feeling, that made my head thump and heart race. Life really is too short. Whether you get 70 or 17 years, there's always going to be that something you wonder about.

YOLO, kind of.

So why are we not all trying to live our lives in true 2012, YOLO craze fashion? Not in a crazy, life-threatening do what you please way. But in an attempt to truly get out of life what you can, while you can. (Please still pay your bills, feed your cat, and respect others.) Living in the moment is something I struggle with, just like many others. I worry. I worry. And then I worry some more. I like to plan and calculate. Look for all the reasons something can go wrong. I get so caught up in my own head that I forget to enjoy my life and the people in it.

We have a tendency to get caught up in our plans and forget to live. One day you wake up and realize that everything you wanted to pass you by. I don't want to wake up to that feeling tomorrow, next week, or 40 years from now. I'm trying though. I'm trying to learn to live without as much fear or worry. I want to be able to look back and say, "Yes, I did that!'

So eat the cake, and the cupcakes too.

Life's too short. So eat the cake, you never know when it could be your last from that person. Cut your hair, it grows back. Spend nights with the people you love, and the early mornings too. By that shirt that makes you feel young. Dance with that boy across the room. Let go of that girl who never treated you right. Read the books you love. Get in the car and just start driving. You have to start somewhere.

So get out there and carpe the hell out of that diem.