I am 18. Some may say this is young. It is true I have a long way to go. However I believe that an individual's age can only be defined by the emotions that they experience during the course of their lives.

Some live life safely, restricting risks, happily meandering in a life that appears complete, but is actually very hollow. They find definition in their lives from events, successes. failures. This is not a bad way to live, however the period between each milestone, each failure, each success, is a period that is present, yet absent from their lives.

I find that after 18 years, I have had enough of meandering.

Today, in reaching a milestone I once longed for, I found that my life became enriched through simply listening to the words of a song. I recognised in that moment more truths about this world in which we live than I had in the four months I spent moving from milestone to milestone, in a moment. A moment that could have lasted a lifetime. I spent hours exploring a realisation, finding depth and meaning in life, just long enough for those who weren't listening to question, in a moment what could I be thinking.

Some believe that a life is given definition by the actions we take, or the milestones we reach. I believe that a life is defined by the emotions we feel and the moments in which we recognise more about ourselves than we have in a lifetime. I am 18. Today, in that moment, I listened, for the first time in my life I really listened and I now feel more enriched, more complete, more alive than most are lucky enough or wise enough to ever feel. In life, to find definition, to completely know yourself you must not focus on the milestones, they are a bonus, you must focus on the journey.