La Vie d’Ashley

In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.

It’s the life in your years.

Abraham Lincoln

I just turned 30 this year, and while there are many things I’ve learned over the past 3 decades, one lesson sticks out the most: live life to its fullest.

I know what you’re thinking- how incredibly cheesy and cliché, but it’s 100% true.

When I was 9, I was in a serious house fire. Serious as in, 10 more minutes and we would have all succumbed to smoke inhalation. To learn more about this story, you can actually read more here.

As a child, I didn’t truly understand what those 10 extra minutes could have meant. Now as an adult, I’m able to reflect and comprehend its weight in meaning. All the incredible things I’ve experienced, meeting the love of my life, becoming friends with the best people, traveling around the world- this all could’ve been taken away 21 years ago. This realization has taught me to not take a single day for granted.

Don’t get me wrong, I have my bad days too where nothing will seem to go my way, and my whole demeanor will change. No matter how hard I try to stay positive, those days will happen, and guess what? It’s okay. We are human, and we have feelings.

But what we need to learn is to acknowledge that it is in fact just a bad day, not a bad life.

So, as someone who has experienced something so life changing, I urge you to live. Appreciate all the ups and grow from all the downs. Take it all in, and just live life to its fullest. I promise you won’t regret it.

xo,
Ashley