Student column: You only live once; be smart about it

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You may not be in high school, you may not listen to rap, you may not know who Drake is but I’m sure sometime in your lifetime you have heard the saying, “You only live once.”

The saying has been around for a while, but the abbreviation, YOLO, well, that just changes everything I guess. The rapper Drake put YOLO into one of his songs and since then it has become a phenomenon.

Although, most people are claiming YOLO has gone from a saying, to a motto and now to an excuse.

Twitter has gotten overly popular nowadays among teenagers, and with that, the hashtag. If you don’t know what a hashtag is, it is whatever people feel, think or a random thought all summed up at the end of a tweet with a pound symbol. It’s how #YOLO has gotten so popular. If you logged onto my Twitter account right now you would probably see a lot of tweets that say #YOLO coming from people I follow.

Most, however, are not what Drake meant when he started using the motto.

By “you only live once,” he meant go do something you usually wouldn’t. Try new things. Take a chance for once.

However, this does not include going drinking, trying new drugs and risking your life.

“I’m going out drinking underage #YOLO” is definitely not a sufficient way to express this. It can’t just be used as an excuse to go do something stupid. It’s supposed to be like Hakuna Matata, which means no worries. My interpretation of YOLO’s true meaning is that it means go tell someone how you feel about them, go to that concert you’ve always wanted to go to, say what you need to say or have some fun.

Why do non-beneficial things when there is a world full of good choices that can change your life?

YOLO means do those things you have always wanted to do, the things that will change your life, just like a bucket list.

So maybe you aren’t in high school, and don’t know much about this YOLO deal, but you sure can follow the movement and making good differences in your life.

Kassie Klasen is a student at Rosemount High School. Her column appears every third week. If you would like to be a student columnist next school year, call editor Nathan Hansen at 651-460-6606 or email editor@rosemounttownpages.com.

Tags: opinion, rosemount, commentaries