Hello everyone! Mary is a little too preoccupied at the moment making chicken nuggets for a few of us in her room so I will be blogging for all of you wonderful people tonight in her place! My name is Eric and I am one of her best friends! And yes, Mary approves of that title I just gave myself. Anyways, I am at that ripe age of 20 and so naturally I am obliged to share all of my wisdom with you! Keep in mind though that this is my first time blogging and I know just how amazing Mary’s blog is so try not to be too critical and let’s hope that I don’t disappoint you too much! So… here are some important things I’ve come to realize:

Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. I know this sounds morbid, but in order to truly appreciate the life that you have, you need to be conscious of the reality that time is fleeting. This idea that we can always wait until tomorrow to start that new diet or that we have unlimited time to check off our bucket lists is just that: an idea. Don’t get me wrong, ideas are wonderful things, but a man in his grave is ultimately measured and remembered by his actions. So, what I’m trying to say is that if you want to do something in this life, do it. You want to audition for a dance team even though you’ve never taken a class? Do it. You want to study underwater basket weaving even though everyone tells you that you’ll never find a job? Go for it. That’s right, you do you! Within reason of course… I mean, it probably isn’t a wise decision to not do homework ever again because you’d rather be drowning yourself in the wonderfully addictive world of netflix, but maybe procrastinating a tad on schoolwork from time to time to be there for a friend who needs you or to make memories with those you love isn’t so bad. What is bad is minimizing yourself out or fear of what others will say, think or do. It is absolutely crucial that you, yes you, live your life in such a way that the worst thing you have to say to yourself is “oh well!” and not “what if?”. As I already mentioned, I’m 20, and while many would say that’s a young age, my list of “what if?”s is already long and it’s a horrible feeling. However, with the help of great friends like Mary, I’m starting to reverse that trend and lead a far more proactive lifestyle. And while the “oh well”s are sometimes hard to say, those two words are nowhere near the mind-weighing intensity of the “what if?”s that I’ve managed to collect. So, while I’m sure that you do, I hope that you don’t have any “what if?”s on your life’s transcript. And if you do, I hope that they are far and few between. Regardless of how marked the page may be though, always remember that there are many more pages that can potentially be written in a different style, and NOW is the time to start writing those pages… Afterall, who really knows how long your book is going to be? I hope that we all have many more chapters ahead of us in our fabulous life novels, but no matter the number, it’s the quality of those chapters that matters. Only you can dictate what quality your life will be through how you choose to conduct yourself and how you choose to react to the people and circumstances surrounding you, so please make the right choice and make whatever chapters you have left count. Also, help your friends write their chapters the right way! Life is a collective effort so why not include as many heroes as possible in your story? So, tell a friend how much they mean to you and get to writing a fabulous story together! And maybe if you’re lucky enough, you’ll have a friend who is amazing as Mary and who will make sure that your chapters are filled with a lot more laughter, love and meaning.

Thanks so much for reading my first ever blog post and please keep on reading Mary’s amazing blog! Remember: “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.”

-Eric