What if you woke up tomorrow and everything was gone? Imagine opening your eyes and realizing that you were still here, but somehow, your friends, your family, your partner — everyone you love and rely on — had vanished without a trace.

What would you regret the most? Would it be the words you never spoke, the feelings you never shared or the moments you assumed you’d always have? Would you wish you had called your mom more often or finally told your best friend how much they meant to you? These questions aren’t meant to scare you, but instead to remind you that time is fragile, and nothing in life is guaranteed.

Now, I’m not trying to go full doomsday here, but I do urge you to think about what it really means to live life to the fullest. It’s not always easy. It’s terrifying, sometimes, to say what we mean and act authentically, to be ourselves without shrinking to avoid judgment. It’s much safer to hide behind our phones, to scroll endlessly through social media, pretending that liking a post or watching someone’s story counts as connection. But we know it doesn’t.

I’d be lying if I said I haven’t fallen into this trap. There have been days I’ve spent nearly the entire time “doom scrolling,” doing absolutely nothing of substance. And while it fills the hours, it doesn’t truly fill me up. At the end of the day, I don’t feel rested, accomplished or inspired. Instead, I feel drained, like I’ve traded something valuable — my time — for nothing in return.

Think about this: If you spend an average of three to four hours a day scrolling, that adds up to roughly nine years of your life. Nine whole years gone to nothing but staring at a glowing screen. That’s heartbreaking. In those years, you could have learned a new language, traveled somewhere new, picked up a musical instrument, written a book or built stronger relationships with the people you love.

So here’s a challenge for this semester: set limits. It doesn’t have to be extreme. If you usually scroll for three or four hours, try cutting it down to two. Use that extra time to do something nourishing — read a book, practice a new skill, go outside or even watch a movie with intention. Anything that leaves you with more than the empty blur of a screen.

Time is the most precious thing we have. We don’t get to pause it, save it or earn more of it. Every hour we give away to our screens is one we never get back. So take the challenge. Use your time to live fully, not virtually, because nine years is far too much to waste on nothing.

Lauren Douda is a sophomore English and secondary education major from Lexington, South Carolina. Lauren can be reached at [email protected].