For most of our lives, there is something we want. Something we strive to achieve. Not the cutest shirt, or the brand-new video game, or even the grandest grades. Something we want out of life. There is always something we want out of life, and most believe that is success. Success in friendships, family, and romance. Success in love and academic achievement. But what we most strongly strive for is success in life. In short, what we want out of life is to live.

There was once a girl. A young, plain, average girl, with nothing fantastic or mystical about her. She was not the girl who would turn heads walking down the street; not the type of girl whose every teacher would applaud. She wasn’t a cruel, mangled creature; just a simple, average girl. However, there was one thing she excelled at, and that was life.

Life, she believed, was whatever you made of it. If what you wanted out of your life was joy, then joy was what you created. If you wanted children, then they were what you strived for. If you wanted excitement, then it was excitement you sought. The difficulty, she acknowledged, was finding out what it was that you wished to make of life.

As a child, the love and affection was what she worked for. That was what made her life worth living. She wished for their love, their approval, their care. She achieved all of this, as most children do. As she grew, her need for love and acceptance expanded. It soon included her friends, her family, and her peers. A little later, it added her significant other. But at some time, she hit a dilemma.

As a teenager, she questioned many of the decisions she’d assumed before. The lines blurred, running together. Nothing seemed concrete. Decisions were hard to make, and even harder to stick to. She indulged in behaviors she’d once considered absurd or unseemly. Life’s ideals, people’s standards, and the law’s requirements didn’t seem to accommodate one another. They clashed and fought and made her life confusing. She didn’t know what she wanted, or what to do. She tried to follow her heart, but it led her in circles. It was a trying time for the girl.

At some point, she realized she didn’t need answers to these questions. She didn’t have to know everything. Being indecisive may irritate some, but she couldn’t help it, and that’s how it was. She accepted things as they were, and realized some things were meant to be questioned and wondered about, while others were not. She understood that though the love and affection of her friends and family may be her top priority, she didn’t need to have just one priority. She found that what she needed out of life was life, and that she did achieve.

For most of our lives, we know what we want. At some points, we become confused and unsure of decisions. But that’s okay. Because in the end, what we strive to achieve out of life, what we want to be sure of at the end of each day, was that we lived. What we strive for most out of life is exactly that: life.