Life happens fast. Everyday accidents happen along with suicides, homicides, and tragedies broadcast all over the news...so why do we wait so long to cherish life?

People don’t care. Our generation especially, is more concerned with social media than to take a step back live a little; the simple things that make life all the more valuable and worth living. A spontaneous, parked car conversation at 9 p.m. on a Sunday, a surprise visit from close relatives or friends, when the car in front of you has paid for your coffee…it’s the littlest of moments that restore our faith in humanity. Technological devices won’t ever pass away, but people do.

No one ever thinks of losing their sister or their best friend or their parents, but it happens every day. Close to 3,500 people perish in a car crash every day. Every 12 minutes, a person takes their own life in the U.S. alone. People only care when the sand in the hourglass has run out and you can’t reverse the clock. We’re all so guilty of getting caught up in the fast track of life, that those ideas don’t come to mind. Suddenly you feel the time you had with these people wasn’t enough.

Personally, I think about death a lot. And not in a creepy way, but the thought of living everyday like it’s the last always sticks with me. My mind can’t help but wonder with a heavy heart when I spot little, wooden crosses planted along the highway. Just knowing someone’s life came to end in that spot gives me goosebumps. I often wonder if they had a family, if they were someone’s son or daughter and how long they had on this Earth.

We were each given a limited amount of days. Each passing day is another day toward our inevitable demise. How bizarre to think that some of your former classmates may be deceased in 5 years? When you’re young, you don’t tend to think about death because almost everyone has an expectation that they’ll die old, of natural causes.

It all happens too fast. A sudden diagnosis, a car crash, a shooting...it can turn anyone’s world upside down, instantaneously. All those hours spent scrolling through Twitter or posting to Facebook that could’ve been spent actually living life; admiring how the waves collapse over the sand or how beautifully painted the sky is at sunset. How many times have you been at your friend’s house and each of you are just silently scrolling through Instagram? We are prisoners to our electronic devices. We have to learn to appreciate technology, but understand the balance. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. One day someone’s here and the next they’re gone.

Life is precious. There are so many places to visit and things to try and milestones to make before it’s our time. Always treat everyone with kindness and if you smile at the world, it will surely smile back; though some days it may not feel like it. Make time for your friends and family. People are important and if we value things over people, we’ve lost our sole purpose. Explore the world, try new things, and meet new people. Put down the phone and enjoy the presence of the people around you. As Gandhi once said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”