“You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.”

As I heard Jane, also known as Nightbirde, say those words on America’s Got Talent, I was overcome with emotion.

The tears started flowing as I listened to her powerful words.

This is a young woman, with an incredible singing voice, who is battling cancer with a two percent survival rate.

2 %.

Her reaction and response to that?

“It’s not zero percent!”

Friends, if I’m being completely transparent and honest, I don’t know that I’d have the same optimistic outlook and strength within me to say that AND have a smile on my face.

But SHE DID.

And before she started her audition, she said one more phrase that really pulled on my heart strings.

“I’m so much more than the bad things that happen to me.”

Goosebumps ran up and down my arms and legs.

Every heartfelt word she said.

Every powerful lyric in her original song titled “It’s OK”

Every single time she spoke, she did it with such beauty and grace.

This magnificent woman is the epitome of strength and hope.

We have all had our fair share of struggles over this past year and at times, it was almost too much to handle.

But she put things into perspective for me that I desperately needed right now.

And maybe you do too?

I think we can all learn from this beautiful soul.

Let’s stop waiting for life not to be hard any more.

Let’s stop allowing our struggles define who we are and start tackling them head on with strength and perseverance.

Let’s choose to smile a little more and cry a little less.

Let’s do more of what makes us happy and remember to be grateful for all of the blessings that surround us.

And as Nightbirde so graciously reminds us in her beautiful song,

“We’re all a little lost sometimes.”

And it’s going to be OK.

So let’s start living life every day like it could be our last.

Just like she does.