Life is about...

Sometimes, there are nights when I substitute my sleep for a endless night of wonder. I think about all the ideas of the world and the things I just can't seem to comprehend; like the endless, forever of space. In these times I seem to stare up at my plain snow painted ceiling and finally end up at the timeless question that is, “What is the meaning of life?”

You might say that life is to complicated to sum up. You might say that everything in life is too hard to learn. I say that life is not about the long essays and gorgeous grades. It's not about how to get a perfect score or have the highest gpa. You don't need the highest reading score to have a good life.

I say, it's not about how many words you can type per minute or how fast you can solve an equation. What is spewing out history dates and names when it comes down to the end? Answering the most questions in class means nothing to the big picture. I say, that life isn't about the 100%’s. It's not about the beaming presentation. It's not about the attendance record. Life isn't about writing the answers as if you got them out of the dictionary.
Life isn't about books and cleverness. It isn't about counting numbers and adding sums. I say, life isn't knowing exactly how gravity works or how close we are to the sun. Is finding all the grammar errors the goal? Should we focus on the spelling faults and sentence breaks? These things may get you a diploma. They might get you into the best college but, that's got nothing to do with it.

I’ve learned that life is about understanding how to find the mistakes and fix them. In my life it is those late nights that lead to early mornings that matter. Those late nights where we stay up until I can't remember if I care what time it is, knowing I have to get up soon anyway. It's about looking forward to what's coming and looking back, but not regretting, what's already left. Life is about the relief that comes after the hard work. The kind of hard work that makes you wish you were a pioneer on the open plains. Hard work that makes the air taste like gritty dust and cold sweat. Life is about the kind of hard work that makes the couch feel like cotton-candy-filled clouds.

It's about the sneaky smiles and the not-so-secret secrets. Secrets that make you laugh until you wish you hadn't. It's about finding the diamond in the pile of rocks. Then taking that diamond and caring for it like it has never left your side. It's about writing down the ideas before they float away like flower petals on the wind. It's about believing that dreams can come true. It's about wishing on a star. Life is about hope. Hoping that things will get better and lighting up when it does. Hope that fills the room so full you have to open the windows just so you don't suffocate.

Life is about the sleepless nights spent outside on the itchy cold grass trying to count the gleaming, silver and gold stars that splatter across the burnt-black night sky. Life is about learning what reality means and holding your head up high anyway. Life is trying and then not trying, to comprehend forever or endlessness. It's about exploring the deep, navy blue waves that form the vast ocean or reaching up so high that you’re trying to catch the stars in your tiny, gentle, loving hands. Life is about dancing in the rain just to feel those precious gifts from the clouds clean out your broken, injured heart and wash away the tears.

I know that life is about the simple things. Life is about the little moments. So, I know not to go looking for the shining star moments because, I might just be eaten by their greedy insides. The shining star moments will find you. In those moments live like a superstar in a country movie. Don’t forget to let them go and move on with the simple things too. Spend your life looking through a microscope at the universe. Don't yearn for the future, it will come in it's own time. Instead, be in the present where every second is a gifted memory. Don't stare back at the past because it's not going to go away. Life is about the little moments; the little moments that are full of life.