Time is probably the most unpredictable thing we will encounter in our lives.

It’s the one thing you are most short of in a hospital when you’re sitting at the bedside of a loved one. It begins to run away from you the moment your child enters the world because their journey to leaving it begins in that very same moment.

Time is terrifying, unpredictable, uncontrollable and beautiful. And it’s for these reasons that there’s never truly a “right” time for anything.

While in college, I’ve watched dozens of my childhood friends get married. They’ve had babies, moved thousands of miles away, started careers and done things we always pretended we knew how to do when we played school or house on the playground.

I’ll admit, I’m one of those people that finds all of this to be absolutely crazy. I’m 21, relying on my parents’ financial and emotional support and I couldn’t even begin to file my own taxes. I have no business taking care of a man, raising children or being an adult.

Honestly, I haven’t the slightest interest in doing any of these things for a while.

But, it’s taken me building personal relationships with people that have done these things so early in life to learn that there’s no way to schedule when you’ll be in the right place at the right time.

You can’t find the person you’re meant to spend forever with and ask them to meet you at Starbucks in five years because today just isn’t working.

Time is a here and now type of thing and here and now comes a lot faster for some people.

God, the universe or whatever you believe in puts you in this eternal series of here and now’s because, well, that’s just life.

There’s no reordering, redesigning or do-overs. It just happens.

I’ve seen so many people grow up quickly because of the circumstances other peoples’ choices have put them in.

Some have had to raise their siblings due to divorce, work multiple jobs as teenagers to support their parents, and forgo a real childhood because being anything less than a responsible adult would ruin their chances of becoming the person they want to be.

And while I’ve spent a majority of my college career wondering what people are thinking getting married and having kids before they can even (legally) buy themselves a drink, I’ve realized we can’t really tell people they’re too young for anything.

You can’t be too young for marriage, too old to go back to school, too small to do something big or too wrong to believe that they choices you’re making for yourself are right because, for some, these are the first choices you’ve actually been able to make for yourself.

When so much of your life has already been chosen for you, it’s liberating to finally take control of the journey and choose your own path.

So, I guess what I’m saying is this: do it.

Learn to dance, become a chef, say “I do”, or take a seat in a college classroom for the first time in 20 years because it’s never too soon or too late to be happy.

And every time you feel weak or want to quit, remember all the doubt and discouragement that you’re facing and use it to make you that much stronger. Because if you can’t take the choices and commitments you’ve made seriously, no one will.

There’s no guarantee that time will allow you to put things off until tomorrow or next year when you have no idea how today will end.

Maybe the here and now moment you’ve been put in takes you by surprise. Maybe it even scares the hell out of you, but the time is here.

And while you can’t control it, you can certainly take advantage of it.