Take Back Your Life!

Live, Now

March 26, 2015 by Giulietta Nardone

In the summer of 2012, I stumbled on The Opposite of Loneliness, a moving essay that went viral, an essay written by Marina Keegan, a terrific young writer who died in a car crash on Cape Cod five days after she graduated from Yale. She was from my home town.

I’ve read this essay maybe 10 times and each time I do, it brings me to my knees because it speaks to my soul.

Marina writes, “There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lay alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out — that it is somehow too late.”

Haven’t we all felt that it’s too late? too late to start over? too late to begin? too late to live? too late to find love? too late to travel? to late be ourselves?

I remember looking in the mirror at 23, yes 23, and feeling washed up, old, a has been. This went on for about 5 years until I managed to slap my own face and say, “girl, wake up. you’re really young.” That’s when I decided to just go for things and forget the “rules” folks who don’t want you to live a full, rich life have written for you.  (more…)