Of all my 19 years of life so far, I have received plenty of advice. The advice has come from a variety of sources such as family members, coaches, friends and teachers. A lot of the advice that I have been given has gone a long way and has brought me to new places in my life, but this advice has brought me from the time I was 15, all the way to where I am today, and I believe that it will stick with me for the rest of my life. This piece of advice came from one of my teachers, and I believe that everyone should have this to use as a guide through life.

At my high school, we have a biannual program called Operation Snowball. 'Snowball' for short. Snowball was a program where kids go to help one another through hardships in life. Although that is one of the soul purposes of the program, most people that I knew, including myself, attended snowball for a fun weekend with teachers and friends away from school and home. At this particular snowball, my sophomore year, I had a leader who was a teacher, Kevin, at my school. Kevin was a TA who would work around the school and when he heard about snowball, he had to be a part of it. Throughout the weekend, Kevin and I got to know each other pretty well and we found that we were quite similar to one another. At the end of the weekend, he wrote me a note, something that everyone at snowball does with their group, and I can confidently say that the note truly changed my life forever. In the note he wrote...

“You understand life at an early age, and what a great thing it is to see. Never doubt yourself. I do not doubt at all ‘success’ in your life. Not the nonsense money, fame success, but the ‘success’ you find at the end of your life when you are 100% satisfied with the man you are and the things you have done. Accept and feel everything good and bad, but never dwell. Only get better every chance you can."

Reading this from a guy that I came to respect and admire, I decided to asses where I was in my life and what I should do in order to be happy in life.

After receiving this advice from Kevin, I found that success is not materialistic. Success is something that you feel, not something that you can necessarily see. I found that who I was at that very moment was someone who caught the attention of someone who I admired, so maybe I had been doing something right.

After thinking long and hard about what Kevin had told me, I came to realize a few things about myself and life itself. I realized that I was happy with who I was, but that I had some things that could've been doing better. Some things like not taking that chance to say hello to someone, or telling people how I truly felt about them, or even dwelling on things in life that didn't matter. I found that life is too short to dwell on everyday hiccups in life. Those tiny things that you might let ruin your day are not worth it in the end, so why worry about them now? I learned that I should talk to people more often and branch out in different directions. All of these changes and the advice that I now live my life by, ended up taking me to a place I had never been to before and a place that I will never leave.

Living my life by this advice has taught me to never dwell on anything, take a deep breath and move on. With that, life will be less stressful and so much more enjoyable. It has also taught me to go out of my way and make a difference because that is what will be my satisfaction in the end. With that in mind, this advice also has put me on the track to being a nurse someday. I chose nursing because I knew that that is where I might make a difference in a way that not many people can and, to me, that is the most satisfying thing of all.

With that, I challenge you; think about what you truly want in life. Don't let the things that you want in life be money or objects- make them feelings and goals. If your desire in life is to be happy, go find what makes you happy and do it. Whatever you want and whatever will give you that satisfaction at the end of your life, go do it. Also, never dwell on little things in life. The guy in traffic that cut you off, the server who messed up your order, or the game you lost that day. Take a breath, and move on. Those things are important to move on from because they will get in the way of your goals and dreams in life.

So, go out and live by this. Do what makes you happy, and get rid of the things that don't. Find that satisfaction in life that you want. It might take a while to find it, but you will and it will be amazing to see what happens when you do.