When I lost my friend Kunbi, I was shocked to my core. I had totally forgotten just how unpredictable life is and how essential every second, of every day is.

I have always wanted to create my own path, carve my own niche. I’ve always been the sort of person to want to stand out and make an impact. My ambition has created many experiences and encounters for me to learn from and for each of them, I am grateful. However, I haven’t always taken full advantage of these opportunities.

My mum always says, whenever you wake up is your morning. As I write this, the Paralympics are on and I cannot help but be awe-inspired by each and every athlete taking part. It is an amazing feat to overcome such encumbrances and achieve such greatness. So what is our excuse? When things get a bit too real, a tad too challenging I sometimes, convince myself that I cannot, but really, why not? What is my excuse?

I used to be afraid of change and of taking chances. It was so bad that for a good month I ordered the exact same lunch, from the same shop and had no desire to switch things up once in a while. I was like Norm from the sitcom Cheers, everyone knew my name! They even had my sandwich prepared before I got to the shop. Until one day, the sandwich shop owner, a pleasant Polish man asked me, “Sonia, don’t you want to try something new? You’re too young to be this unadventurous.” (Ok, not exactly his words but something along those lines). I was taken aback, I didn’t have an answer. Obviously I didn’t see anything wrong with my borderline compulsive need to keep things the same until that moment. Then I couldn’t ‘unthink it’. I began to wonder when I became that person, so afraid to change any aspect of my life even though I knew I needed to. It stretched far beyond that bacon and cucumber baguette with just a dash of mayonnaise, it was everything; my job, my relationship with God, my friendships and myself.

But then, a series of things happened that completely throttled me out of my rut. Time is of the essence, I had to take action. When I lost my friend Kunbi, I was shocked to my core. I had totally forgotten just how unpredictable life is and how essential every second, of every day is. Tomorrow is not a guarantee so why was I wasting time? In her short time, Kunbi had made an impact on so many people- strangers and friends alike. Kunbi was well rounded, her personality was loveable, her strength was admirable and her belief was unshakeable. Could I confidently say I had any of those things? Not nearly, so I switched tactics. All the things I knew I needed to change I went ahead and did. For me, the important thing was to be content, to be happy. What was my excuse not to be?

I’m still on the pursuit, but I am a long way from Repetition Close and watching the Paralympics continues to push me to take the risk and go above and beyond to achieve what I want. It isn’t an easy road but I’d rather leave this earth knowing I gave it my best shot than to not have tried at all. A man with no legs broke a record the other day in the 100m sprint, he overcame his setbacks and achieved greatness, Kunbi left behind a flawless legacy and made such an impact in such a short time, they were strong enough to push for what they believed, what is my excuse not to? What’s your excuse?

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Sonia Irabor is the Assistant Editor and UK Correspondent for Genevieve Magazine. Currently based in the UK, she also works in Corporate PR.

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30 Days 30 Voices series is an opportunity for young Nigerians to share their stories and experiences with other young Nigerians, within our borders and beyond, to inspire and motivate them.

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.