In 5 minutes:

You can brew a cup of coffee.

A newborn baby can cry for the first time.

You can win the lottery.

A first kiss can occur between two new lovers.

You can walk across a stage at a college graduation.

The point is, our lives are able to change in a matter of minutes.

You see, time is probably the greatest gift we have been given, and the best part of it is, we get it for free. Each one of us gets 24 hours in a day and it is up to us to choose how we will spend those 24 hours. The thing is, we are constantly saying, “I wish this day would just be over.” I think we are all guilty of wishing time would just speed up, but when we do this, we forget that we will never be able to relive those 24 hours again.

It tends to hit us when we are all of the sudden adults and paying bills, or when you realize suddenly your little nephew doesn’t fit in your arms anymore. Perhaps, when you notice your parents' wrinkles on the sides of their eyes are deepening, and their brown hair you used to know is now gray. These are the moments we realize time has come and gone away faster than we thought it would.

We always want time to move more quickly, until one day, it hits us like a brick wall. Stuck in despair, we want all that time back with the people we love — we wish we could return to those moments we once wanted to fast forward out of.

To put things into perspective, let’s imagine you get the opportunity to drive the car of your dreams. The car itself, and the gas to drive it, is completely free. It is yours. After the car salesman happily hands you the keys to your new whip, he says there is one catch: The car can be taken from you at any time. It could be taken in 10 years, or it could be taken in an hour after it was given to you.

I think if we were all in this situation, we would drive the car until we couldn’t anymore, considering we wouldn’t know how much time we would get to enjoy it. After all, who in their right mind would leave the car of their dreams sitting parked in a garage?

The car is the same as our time here on earth. Many of us chose to keep our lives in “park” without any destination. Sometimes, we simply do not take advantage of what we’ve been given. At times, our lives remain in idle, with no sense of direction or adventure. We become comfortable in our car, because it is no longer new to us after a few weeks. But, we fail to realize that our car was once an amazing gift to us and we should cherish it. We'd be crushed if we didn't take the chance to drive our car, until one day, when we decide to go take it out for a drive, it is gone. We will never get spent time back; don't realize that when it's too late.

Today, I’ve chosen to take my car for a spin and I hope you chose to do the same.