Since the day you were born, the clock has been ticking. You are not getting younger and at each tick you have an opportunity: to let life pass you by or to pursue it.

You may have been told over and over that life is not easy. It's hard, and challenges never go away. The difference between lackluster people and those that move forward with their lives are the caliber of these challenges. If you didn't work hard in high school and get into the UW, you would most likely be facing easier quests that would get you the assistant manager position at Blockbuster, rather than the internship at Boeing.

Since you are here in college, it's time to level the playing field. You don't just want to be above those people you left behind in high school — you want to reach your true potential. Ask yourself: Are you one of those people that stands for nothing? Or are there things about you that make you — you and no one else? Here's where fashion comes in.

Fashion is more of a baby step or a training program for bigger challenges that come at you. Questions like "Should I do that internship at that accounting firm, study abroad in Vienna or take chemistry and go to medical school" can be practiced at Forever 21 and Nordstrom.

When making a decision at H&M when I was interning in New York, I brought two of the same dresses to the cash register, one in black and the other in red. I said to the salesperson, "Can you help me choose the color, I can't decide."

She replied to me in a passionate thick Jamaican accent, "Red, always red."

Without a second thought I bought the red one. I will never forget what she taught me that day, which is to always be bold. Now I am not saying we should all buy outlandish colors and run around trying to make statements with our outfits. What I'm getting at is to apply your fashion confidence to real life choices. Should you follow the crowd, or should you go after your true passion for painting? Fashion decisions can build you up to the moment of making those crucial life choices.

Analyzing your life can be similar to cleaning out your wardrobe. What do you use and what can be thrown out? If you go to the mall to go shopping and have no idea what you are looking for, you're going to end up with bags of clothes you didn't need and less money in your pocket. If you go to Anthropologie to buy a purple trench coat you already saw online and then find gray boots and charcoal skinny jeans that look great with it, then buy them: You made an outfit that is very versatile.

In life, if you put yourself out there having no idea what you want, you will be unhappy in the end. If you spend extra time researching, studying, networking and routinely cleaning out your mental wardrobe, you will be prepared to take on the challenges that reflect who you are.

If you go to Anthropologie and find that the purple trench coat makes you look like a box, but then try on an aqua trench coat and it looks fabulous — buy it. You thought you wanted one thing but once you tried it on it wasn't what you wanted. But who can blame you for trying?

Would you have regretted it, if you had not gone to the store and tried it on? Maybe, but it's only fashion and trends are always going in and out. In real life, though, you don't get second chances. Life is too short to have too many clothes hanging in your closet that you don't wear.

[Reach columnist Shanelle Smith at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]