Lately, I’ve been interested in a new hobby that has prompted some serious thinking about not only my health, but the healths of other teenagers.

I’ve been taking zero hour for about two years now, and I believe that is what truly catalyzed this new obsession of healthy living and taking care of yourself. It seems a bit odd that a teenager like myself would truly prefer working out for an hour every night as opposed to sitting at home and watching television. In opposition to my newfound passion, all I seem to hear in gym are the complaints of other students because they have to actually jog for 20 minutes.

In fact, I’ve recognized a huge difference in not only how I look, but how I feel. There is a certain pride that captures you after a good workout; my chest tightens, my head becomes surprisingly clear, and I feel a type of exuberance that propels me to push myself further in whatever I encounter. Exercising is a certain escape that not even Tumblr can achieve, giving me the confidence and strength to preserve anything from enduring the ACT or just climbing to the third floor.

I don’t think we realize the amount of dependence our futures have on the lives that we live now. My fellow classmates and I just took the ACT, a test that will ultimately determine where we go to college and receive future education. While this may be just four hours of our entire life, it’s strange enough to think that this will impact the rest of our adulthood.

This is the only life that we have, and if we don’t take care of it now while these significant decisions are on the horizon, the consequences will come back and haunt us. Our time as an adolescent calls for so much more than just newly received freedoms, but a sense of responsibility as well (oh dear, Mom was right).

The choices we make vary from person to person, but one thing that will always remain constant in our lives is the fact that we must take control of our lives now before our lives take control of us later.