This I Believe by Ryan Stewart

Being the best you can be, and being who you want to be. Learning from your mistakes. Saying goodbye to yesterday. Forgiving you enemies. Doing whatever it takes and shooting for the stars. Being in control of you life and living each moment like your last. What is all of this? This, my friends is life. But life doesn't just have a definition. It has a meaning. But no one knows what the meaning of life really is. The meaning of life is different for each and every person. And we must figure out what our life means by ourselves, because no one can tell you what your life means or why you are here. That is something you must figure out by yourself. To me, life is about having and making friends, love and relationships, and learning.

Life is nothing without friends. It you don't have friends, you are going to be miserable and depressed. And that's no way to live life. Friends can be anyone you choose them to be. Don't think that they can't be your family, because they can. They might even be some of your best friends. Let your friends affect you in the most positive way. They can lift you up in so many ways. But they can also bring you down in the worst ways. If you are ever in that position don't let them bring you down. Instead be better and lift them up with you. Because that is what friends are for. True friends will always help you in the best way that they can in any situation that you may ever be in. And that is why friends are such a big part of life. Friends are so special in so many ways.

Next there is love. Love is also so important to our lives. Without love you are lost. Love is one of the major factors in a friendship or any relationship for that matter. It is such a good thing to be loved by someone you care about. A friend that loves you is already special. And that friend can help you in any way that you need it. Friendships with love create some of the greatest relationships. After all, love is a friendship set on fire. When you are loved, you are overall better. You do better in school, your job, in sports, you act better and make better choices, you feel happy all the time and you just want to spread a little of your love to everyone you know. To be loved is the greatest thing in the world. The secret to being loved is to be lovable. Just know that you are loved, and you will love with ease. And remember, "Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." - Anonymous.

Then, there is learning. All throughout our life we are learning. We go to school to learn and we have jobs that teach us what we need to know. If we didn't ever go to school, we would know nothing of the world. Yeah, you might not like school or you may even hate it. But if you think about it, it does so much for you so you can learn. I know that doesn't sound exciting, but it is what it is. Everyday we learn something new. And everyday we become wiser. If we didn't learn anything, our lives would be chaos. But we do learn. We make mistakes everyday and we learn from them and try our best to not make those same mistakes over and over again. We learn what's right, and what's wrong. When you learn, you teach yourself to live a better life.

Before I end today, I wanted to share with you some of the other values of life I believe in. When I think of life, I think of being who I want to be. Being the best that I can be. Being in control of my own life. Making more out of what the world's got to offer. Living life to the fullest. Living each moment like my last. Saying goodbye to yesterday, and shooting for the stars. Going against the grain. Doing whatever it takes. Seeing and believing in miracles. Forgiving my enemies. And just loving my life in general. And as a good friend once told me, You should be happier more often. Cause life is too short to be sad all the time. All of these things plus more are values of life. And all throughout my life I will be searching for the meaning of my life. Because I believe in life.