I met the first person I called the “love of my life” coincidentally. We lived in the same building my final year in the university and one fateful day, our eyes locked. We never said a word to one another and we’d end up doing this dance for weeks on end. “Running” into one another (they weren’t all coincidental, I orchestrated quite a number of them), staring and immediately walking off until the night we didn’t. So that night, I just got into the building and she was friends, I was cordial with her friends and after throwing around casual greetings I was invited to join their conversation. Now, any other night, id have awkwardly found a way to leave without indulging, but that night was different. The girl I had been pining for for weeks was seated there. If you knew me then, I was completely introverted, shy, silent - you have any other description for timid and it’ll be a perfect fit - I knew this opportunity would never present itself so freely again and I took it. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made.

Carpe Diem, seize the moment, seize the day. We’ve all come across a different variation of this at least once in our lifetime but what exactly does it entail?

We’re human beings at the end of the day and the self-preservation, it’s an instinctual trait - “I know the fire burns so I won’t be going anywhere close to it” - and as we grow, we learn to further avoid situations that put us at risk be it physically, mentally or even emotionally. And while there are situations where the outcomes are strictly “this or that”, other outcomes are grey. So, this is where discernment comes in. How do you decide when to protect yourself and when to take a leap of faith? We believe that at this point, making “logical” decisions is the only way to go but why does it have to be one or the other? Why sacrifice emotions when they can work in tandem instead.

Seizing the moment. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, but how do we seize the moment if we’re not comfortable leaving our comfort zones. We have to be ready to discomfort ourselves because “the moment” isn’t standing by waiting to be picked. There isn’t an endless supply and we definitely don’t get nine lives to keep trying. So, seize them as they come. Take chances. This is what it means to be human.