You know the expression, “There are no dress rehearsals in life”? Yeah, that appears to be true. We’re all improvising on this proverbial stage of life, trying hard to say “yes, and!!” (with extra exclamation points) when we really mean “NO, BUT” (in desparate caps). It’s disconcerting to be living life LIVE (like SNL but with way less celebrities), without a script, flailing through our mistakes and gaffes, wondering if other people have it figured out (they don’t), trying to function (which we all somehow manage to do). (Some better than others though.)

I actually don’t care too much about the “we didn’t get a dress rehearsal” woe of life. It’s like any other atrocity that we simply have to learn to deal with, like how Kenny Rogers Roasters folded (RIP, you delectable rotisserie roasted chicken, you).

The line that resonates more with me, in keeping with the theater theme, is that “There are no encores in life.”

You know I’m interested in how it all ends.

I believe we live in such a way that would make a Martian think, “Oh! This human is saving up a bunch of cool stuff to do in what they think is their encore life.” (And then the Martian would get back in its spaceship and laugh with all his Martian friends about how stupid we are because we delude ourselves into thinking we can live the Tony-award version of our lives later. Said Martian would then polish off a Kenny Rogers chicken breast.)

We postpone our existence, don’t we?

We tell ourselves we’ll pursue our dreams and goals “later,” “when things are less crazy at work,” “when the kids are out of the house,” “when I get that promotion,” “when I’ve saved enough money,” “when I lose the weight,” “when I retire.”

It’s like we’re creating wee little encores … deluding ourselves into thinking “life will get good when ____” (you fill in the blanks). “Life will get juicy when ____” (you fill in the blanks). “I’ll start living for real when ____” (yes, you are still filling in the blanks).

It’s all a bunch of bullshit though, and if we’re being honest, we know it.

Life doesn’t give us second chances (okay unless you died, were defibrillated, and came back from the dead—so highly unlikely).

We get one go.

Life is happening NOW, without a dress rehearsal, without an encore at the end to cross off all the bucket list items we saved up for Later.

Let’s get living now. How about for the next year of your life? The next 52 Mondays that are waiting to be lived, enjoyed, made to feel so alive you could burst.

Let’s not save anything for an encore that’s never going to come.

So when the curtains are drawn (wow, I’m really killing this theater metaphor here), let’s all take our final bow, and feel astonishingly proud of how we killed it while we were lucky to be here.

If I was being extra cheesy I’d say, “Break a leg in this lifetime!” but since I’m never, ever, ever fromage-ey I’ll just say, “Let the show go on.”