Today is my birthday.

I’d like to celebrate, but my only thoughts are that I’m either a quarter of the way to 100 or that I’m only five years away from being 30.

Terrifying, I know.

As a birthday present to myself, I drove to Denver last weekend for a National Geographic Traveler photo seminar. Working for National Geographic is among my dream jobs, and I can’t tell you how much I envy their photographers and writers.

It’s more like pure jealousy, actually.

At 25-years-old, I don’t feel I’ve done a whole lot with my life. I’m not sure what they were doing at my age; I just know that what they do now is amazing.

I spent 18 days in Central America last January and don’t feel like I accomplished much. It was my first extensive trip outside of the country, but I didn’t come home with any of those National Geographic-like moments.

My only reasoning is that I wasn’t fearless enough. I wasn’t spontaneous enough and didn’t take enough chances, especially when it came to meeting the locals.

To me, and to the National Geographic photographers, photography is not about taking great pictures. It’s about being there. Taking a photograph should be an experience, not a matter of releasing a shutter.

Great photographers will tell you the same thing when it comes to taking great pictures—you just have to be there to take them.

They know that if you don’t take the picture when the opportunity presents itself, then that opportunity is probably gone forever. You will never have that picture.

To me, this is a great metaphor for the way most of us go through life. We have opportunities all the time; we just never take the picture.

I learned a lot about photography while at the seminar last week. But more importantly, I feel like I learned a lot about how to live life.

When an opportunity presents itself, whether that is a spontaneous road trip, a chance to meet new people, or even an excuse to learn to salsa dance, take it.

Living goes well beyond just breathing. It goes beyond your age and your career. It’s all about how you approach life and what you do with the time that you are given.

Photography is hardly the best metaphor for life, but in a way it’s the perfect snapshot of it.

Just like in photography, if you don’t jump on an opportunity, you might never get it back. And it’s these amazing opportunities that are your life’s pictures.

So get out there and take some pictures.

Without them, your life story will be pretty boring.