Valerie Harper, an actress known for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on the 1970s television series, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, has terminal cancer. You would think this is a bad thing, but for this optimistic happy-go-lucky girl, it’s not even close to the end of the world.

“Don’t go to the funeral until the day of the funeral. Live this day.” That’s what Harper said during her interview on “Good Morning America.” She is using all the time she has left, which is said to be only a few months, to restore new hope into people who have lost it.

When I saw this on “Good Morning America,” I started thinking about what I would do if I knew I was going to die soon. I don’t know if I would have the strength to be that optimistic. I don’t know if I could withstand the pressure to just give up and roll over. I know I couldn’t just act like nothing was happening though.

I listed out the first things I would do if I found out I was dying. Every one of them would have bettered me and let me go with closure, but none of them were meant to help the world like Harper’s did. I would talk to God more. I would spend more time with my friends and family. I would pay more attention to helping others more than myself and I would worry less about my grades or whether I made that position on drumline. I would publish all those columns I was too afraid to show anyone. The ones where I expressed my feelings of anger to my parents or my family and the ones where I told that boy exactly how I felt about him.

I live in fear every day. I fear disapproval of my peers. I fear failure or rejection. I’m afraid to tell people what I think or what I feel because I don’t want to be wrong. I don’t want to tell my parents that sometimes I get angry with them for hating each other. I’m too afraid to make a decision on which I would rather live with. I’m too afraid to hurt their feelings.

I also can’t tell that certain boy how much I really like him because I don’t want to lose him as my friend. I’m too afraid. Fear is what it all boils down to. I can’t do things because I’m afraid. I know everyone is afraid in the long run, but if you knew it was the end for you and in just a few months, none of it would even matter, would you still be afraid?

I like to tell myself that I would rather regret doing something than regret not doing it. It’s true and I would, but still I usually just don’t do anything and then let myself regret that. I wish I was courageous enough to say and do the things I wrote on my list. It upsets me to know that it would take the risk of death to make this fear go away.

Seeing Valerie Harper use her massage to spread hope made me realize how much of a cowardly lion I was being. I had the courage; I just wasn’t using it because I didn’t believe or trust that it was really there. I noticed that Harper didn’t change when she found out she might possibly die in a matter of months. Harper already had the strength to go in front of the world and share her thoughts. The only thing that changed was her urgency to get those words out.

Seeing all of this makes me courageous. Why should I wait until it’s too late to take a chance? I don’t know for sure what my family would think of my columns or if I will actually get shot down by that boy I’ve had my eye on for so long. What is there to be afraid of except not knowing? Harper did give me hope. She showed me the hope she had and inspired me to find my own. As Harper said, “We all need to live in infinite possibility.” So that’s exactly what I plan to do. Whether I succeed or not.