Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep. -Carl Jung

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
-Elie Wiesel

Love doesn't make the world go 'round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile. -Franklin P. Jones

Everything has been figured out, except how to live. -Jean-Paul Sartre

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. -Joan Baez

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain

Is it so small a thing
To have enjoy'd the sun,
To have lived light in the spring,
To have loved, to have thought, to have done... -Mathhew Arnold

And we always say, "one life, live it." And I don't know about anyone else, but for me, I don't know if I've lived my life yet. To really live and not merely exist. Family and friends can help make your life a bearable and enjoyable one, but I sincerely believe that at the end of the day, your life is for you to lead. Only you can decide how you want to lead it. Everyone has different expectations of their lives, so we can't really say for others that they haven't lived their lives in a fulfilling way, just because their idea of a life well-lived doesn't tally with our own idea of a worthily-led life.

But what I can say, or rather, what I've realised is that we always say, "This is the life I want to have in the future." or that, "My life is going to be so much better after the A Levels" (I think I say that most frequently). And you know what, I've been divorcing life from life itself. It's become a goal to work towards, not a process. Along the way of schooling and studying, I've prioritised life to be an end-goal, an epitome of perfection and the result of hard work. And I've clean forgotten that life is everyday, life is happening even as I'm typing this entry out instead of studying for Lit. Essentially, I think what I'm trying to say that life is the here and now, so don't hold back all the time from what you want to do. I mean, if it doesn't hurt anyone else, and if it doesn't bring you great harm, I say go ahead and do it. I think we could all benefit from living life as it is, instead of seeing it as something to be delayed and savoured later on. Because that later on may never come. The perfect moments don't arise from detailed planning nor from paranoid, cautious worrying and prudence, but from sheer spontaenity and unbridled feeling. Feeling for life. Maybe that's generalizing a little, but take for example, those kissing scenes in dramas. You don't date a chick out with the intention of planning to kiss her, you don't chart the specific, minute details that will lead to your eventual kiss, right? It happens spontaenously (spelling sucks man), when you look into her eyes and the sparks fly, and blah blah, and at that perfectly unplanned-for moment, you kiss her. That's the sweetest way for a kiss to happen, is it not? I wouldn't know, but when I find out, I'll be sure to let you know. Whoever you may be.

So hey, you. Reading this right very moment. Live life, don't postpone it, because that'd be something like death, wouldn't it?

I remember your story behind "delaying gratification". The people who do so would be more successful in life later on. But how do you define success? When you have lived a life filled not so much with regrets, but with great memories, when your soul is enriched with all that you have wanted to do, when you have really, truly lived- based on your own ideals, your own principles, your own convictions. That's success for me. What's to say those "successful" people who chose to delay gratification aren't regretting what they gave up? It's not so much to say that you should do whatever you want to do, of course, it has to be governed with reason and logic, and you need to be aware of the consequences on the people around you. But sometimes, kick aside "delaying gratification" because hey, if you want to do something really badly at that moment, do it, experience it and live it. Delaying gratification would not give you the same experience you'd wanted at that intial point; you'd have lost it the moment you chose to pass up on it. You can't ever get it back.

So let's learn to live our lives every single moment. To appreciate it more than grouse about it, and to put behind what has passed, well and good.

No regrets.