I’ve had my high school friends on my mind since Friday, when I found out through Facebook that one of our former classmates passed away. I don’t know what the circumstances were but it doesn’t matter… either way she was too young and it was too soon for her to go.

Each time someone passes away, particularly when they’re younger, we find ourselves saying, “You just never know when life can throw you a curveball” or “You have to live every day to its fullest.” And for the weeks following their death, you find yourself passing the Starbucks and thinking, “I shouldn’t… but you know what? I should!” or booking that vacation you’ve been putting off or calling that old friend you’ve lost touch with. You remember the lesson you learned from that passing.

But slowly, as time goes on, you inevitably slip back into your old ways. While you’ll never forget that person, the urgency you felt at the time of their death to make every day count does recess, and before long, old habits rear their ugly heads and we continue coasting through life putting things off or dismissing the ordinary.

I’m definitely guilty of this. And while I may not go to extreme lengths to grab the bull by its horns, each day I try and make the people in my life, whom I know and don’t know, feel good. True, I may come across as extremely corny, but I suck up the vulnerability of wearing my heart on my sleeve and I say what I feel. I always compliment people’s babies – I know, as a parent, that this is the highest form of praise, so I try and make a point of posting comments on baby pictures and stopping strangers to tell them how adorable their children are, because maybe, in the whirlwind of being a mom or a dad, a little compliment will be just the pick-me-up they need. I am patient and polite when I’m on the phone with customer service people or even telemarketers who call my house and interrupt my dinner… these people make very little money and probably deal with meanies and hang-ups all day long, and for those who are extra nice, I always tell them so, because it takes a lot to have a happy disposition doing such a mundane job for hours on end. I go out of my way to tell waiters and salespeople that they’re doing a good job, and I’ve even asked to see their managers to tell them how awesome their employees are. I love sharing fond memories I have with old friends and acquaintances, even if it makes me look mushy.

I’m not trying to toot my own horn here at all. But whenever our foundations are shaken because someone is taken away from us too soon, we make promises and never stick to them. What do you really want to do in your life? Travel? Volunteer? Make a difference? Then what in the world are you waiting for?! Sure, I’d love to see Paris and learn to play guitar, but the biggest thing I want to do in my life, my one life’s ambition, is to be known as someone who was a good friend to the world. Yep, I said it and it’s majorly sappy. But it’s the truth. And every day I seize every opportunity to do that. If my time were to come tomorrow, I’d have no regrets for that one reason.

So please, let this be your wake-up call. Don’t put off today what you can do tomorrow because tomorrow is unpredictable… but today isn’t. Today you are here, so what are you going to do today?

1- Someone prank-called me the other day. It made me happy… I’d like to think that kids/teens are going back to old-school traditions and not playing on the computer or their phones (although they probably got my number from canada411.com… and I think it was my 25-year-old brother-in-law…)

2- We’ve improved a lot with technology, but there are still some basic things that need a new-millennium-update, like shopping carts (why do some of them still ONLY turn left?!) and vending machines (someone had to have invented a way to give that bag of chips one more nudge so it doesn’t get stuck).

3-Toilet paper should feed from the top, not the bottom.

4- Where have all the paper grocery bags gone? They’re less harmful to the environment than plastic and they make great (free) package-wrapping paper.

5- Somewhere there’s a secret land with all of my missing singular socks, lighters, pens, and hair clips.

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie… what are you doing?!?!

I guess some people can handle fame and others just don’t have the willpower. It’s like having the devil on one shoulder offering you the forbidden fruit and the angel on the other warning you about falling in the Garden of Eden – some take fame and fortune and turn it into something positive (i.e., Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, and Ellen DeGeneres) while others go straight downhill (i.e., Charlie and Lindsay). Many celebs who achieved stardom as kids did very well in life, like Natalie Portman, Justin Timberlake, and Claire Danes, and then there’s Drew Barrymore, who had her big break when she was just 6 years old on “E.T.” and was an alcoholic by the time she was 11, or Tatum O’Neal, Jodie Sweetin, and River Phoenix.

Christina Aguilera was arrested on Tuesday for public intoxication. The deaths of Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and Brittany Murphy have been tragic, and the drug/legal grumblings of Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan appear to be part of an ongoing “trend” with celebs. Are there more stars with personal demons than the “average” industry, or do they just seem to get the attention more than the average Joe-schmo addict?

Celebrities have tons of pressure… when they “hit it big,” they have everyone and everything at their disposal. They also have “clout” or star-power that earn them special get-out-of-jail-free cards, making them think that they’re invincible. But the contradiction lies in the other part of the celeb-equation – the part where they’re “role models” because they’re on TV shows or sing songs that the younger generation likes. When they don’t live up to their potential and behave in an “appropriate” way, they’re scrutinized because people think they “owe” something to their impressionable fans (such was the case when members from the cast of “Glee” posed for a risque photo shoot for GQ magazine).

Is this really fair? How do we get our children to understand that celebrities are like everyone else who are doing a job and who make wrong decisions?

Everyone has their vices. EVERYONE. Whether it’s smoking, drinking, drugs, over-eating, or gambling, every person has a “bad habit.” The difference with celebs is, they are always in the public eye. So is it fair to come down on them so hard? Or, because they have the privilege of being rich and famous, do they need to live by a “higher code” of conducting themselves?