Life is a tricky thing.

It is this intangible, unfeasible concept that informs us that there is a certain aspect of fluidity associated with time. We far too often are tempted to snag onto material objects, photographs, the everyday tremors this vessel we encompass has to face with the assumption that these trivial pursuits or artifacts hold some grand deeper meaning that places us just one step closer to unfurling the instruction manual that is virtually non-existent apart from within the specific societies we fall into for how to succeed at the sole challenge that life begs of us conceptually: how to live.

But what the hell is living and how do I do that? Unfortunately, living is a concept that has been manipulated to only be grasped by the individual. Discerning this idea means that living is whatever you believe it is. We’ve all heard someone claim that you’re not truly living until you’ve participated in this one specific activity, traveled to this random remote location, or had some other experience entirely under the guidelines that this individual has constructed for themselves about life and how to make the best use of time, the trickiest thing in the universe to grapple with.

Some will tell you that life is about taking everything day by day and honing your focus in on what you can feel or accomplish on any given day. Some claim that life is about the future, contemplating and creating aspirations for yourself, figuring out what exactly needs to be done to get there, and having a sort of game plan or timeframe to navigate so that you can complete those things before the timer runs out.

Really, I would argue that living life is about being rich.

Rich is another tricky idea. This is perhaps because rich doesn’t always mean wealthy, though I might claim it does to a lot of societies. Rich is just like life, it is a loose concept that you have to define for yourself.

One perspective someone might have is that obtaining a career that will inevitably load their bank account with dough and owning all of the fanciest cars, the most elegant home, and top-notch furniture is the goal. But another might think that finding a career and going on a journey to get there for sheer enjoyment, regardless of the pay, and gaining as many perspectives and memories as they can by simply experiencing the world and everything in it is the goal.

Clearly, as an aspiring teacher and writer, who loves to sing, paint, and play Violin, and a massive travel enthusiast of course, it is quite obvious which of these two examples I can best resonate with.

The point of these two terms is in how we define not only them, but all language pertaining to how we want to live. Are words not simply arbitrary letters smushed together and assigned textbook definitions to place society in a comprehensive box that everyone can mold themselves into? Given where I am writing this (see above), I’d say it has been important to me as of late to identify what these two terms mean to me, and how I want to experience them.

But if I remove myself and take a step back, I realize that this is a larger issue than me, it is impossible to arrive at a point where you can develop a full and definite philosophy on what life or living is, and if you never arrive at a conclusion about who you are or whether or not your life is rich, then that is when you are most sure of yourself, that is when you know that you are living. When you put your best foot out in the world, reach for whatever it is you might seek, and just be with all your heart and soul, that is when you know you are living.

Life is a tricky thing, but life is what you make it.