“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

When I was eleven, my mother, two sisters and I left my father and a very comfortable life in Nigeria to live with my grandmother in Texas. My sisters and I joke that the silver spoons that were placed in our mouths at birth were replaced with plastic ones. I learned a valuable lesson from that time in my life: nothing in life is guaranteed. While much in life is out of my hands, I will focus on the things that bring me closer to happiness.

I will not let a day pass without talking to my mother, sisters, aunt, or friends. I will sacrifice always doing things I am passionate about, so that my children can do things that will make them happy.

I hope I never forget how to laugh or that I can't take myself, or life, too seriously. This way, when my life has come to a close, my career accomplishments are the last things that people will remember about me. I want to be remembered as a good daughter, sister, friend, mother and wife. Henry Miller wrote, "The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." I aim to live my life this way, wandering with conviction on a journey towards happiness.

— Emily Anadu