That saying, “When you love something, you let it go,” is the stupidest saying I’ve ever heard.

Are people living anymore? I mean, yeah, people are breathing a lot, and walking around, and their arms are swinging along with them as they walk and breathe all over the place, but are people doing the things that make them happy?

Part 1: The Part Where I’m Technically Dead

Not too long ago I was putting books back on library shelves for a living. I graduated college with a degree in creative writing, and here I was, in this library, where senile old men would fart on me and not even have the decency to say something like “whoopsy daisy,” and teenagers would make out against bookshelves (as if the damn library was such a hot place for a make out), and the kids were always screaming because all of the Dora the Explorer books were checked out. This isn’t the place where I wanted to end up. I once heard seagulls fly out to sea to die. And that’s how I felt—like some stupid seagull that had flown out to sea to die. I could feel my creativity circling above the water looking for a place to plummet.

Part 2: Wait, I Think I Feel a Pulse

When I was in high school the older brother of my girlfriend, at the time, came up to me to share a few words. He was drunk, but regardless he had words. He said, “Hey man, I heard you want to be a writer. Is that true?” I told him yeah, but I was considering doing something more realistic. “FUCK THAT,” he said. “I bet you’re just telling me that because other people have given you shit when you told them you want to be a writer.” I nodded. It was true. “Look man,” he said, “you’re young. You can do whatever you want. You still have all that excitement. You know, like the whole world is your playground.”

“Jay, how much have you had to drink, man,” I asked him.

“That’s not the point,” he said. “Look, I’m older, and I don’t have that excitement in me anymore. The world begins to wear away at you and eventually you just get tired and your dreams just stay dreams. Do you know what I’m telling you?”

I knew exactly what he was telling me and his words felt like a wake up slap from a beautiful French woman in a skimpy red dress. I nodded and he said, “That’ a boy,” and he pat my shoulder. After that he threw up into the sink. Yeah. The world had really worn away at Jay, but I was still young. As he barfed his guts into the sink, I realized I could become anything I wanted. I suddenly became very excited because I realized that day that I was going to become a fucking writer.

Part 3: The Part Where I Get to the Point

I am interning as a copywriter at Casanova Pendrill. I’m here because one day I put my foot down and promised myself I’d be a writer. My message to people like Jay, and other people who aren’t doing what makes them happy is this: Jay, failed to notice that people are always young. You only stop being young when you’ve convinced yourself that you’re old. Get excited. Get slapped by a sexy young French woman in a skimpy red dress. And if you love something, don’t let it go. Cliché or not, that is the stupidest thing you can do. Believe me, you don’t want to find yourself one day telling a younger person to “seize the day” right before you throw up into a kitchen sink.

Josue Mendoza is a stud muffin graduate from California State University Long Beach with a degree in Creative Writing. He has a great appreciation for sidewalk-chalk art and loves chasing seagulls on the beach.