By Aya Riseman, TIWP Student

Waking up, the first thing I do is reach for my phone. I’ll check my texts or scroll on TikTok for hours, not thinking about how lucky I am to be here at all. Walking outside, I barely appreciate the beauty of the world, mainly focused on whatever’s happening on social media that day. Look around. We’re all the same mindless bodies, obsessed with ourselves to the point that we fail to notice anyone else. Empty, broken. Alive but not really living. We take life for granted, falling into the hole along with millions of others, who found it far too easy to get immersed in a strangers life. Put down the phone. Climb out of the hole. Watch the sunrise. See the stars. Appreciate life for what it really is, not what we’ve made it out to be. Discover what it means to not just live, but to be truly alive.