Life Is...

Life is the capacity for growth, functional activity and continual change until death, according to the Oxford American Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus. Based on that definition I am surely alive. How do you separate those who are functioning but lack the capacity to grow? A comatose patient is functioning but lacks the capacity to grow because of a dormant mental state. As a child I used to stare at my reflection in the mirror wondering if I were alive.
Being alive you can feel things like emotions and sensations. Life is an orchestrated choreography of events during an expanse of time. Yahoo states that life is the physical, mental, and spiritual experiences that constitute existence...
So what does that mean for me... that means my life has been briefly described within the confines of my poetry that express my physical, mental and spiritual experiences.
I have been working on an English paper and I have been drawing a blank for the last week. A definition essay on any word of our choosing. First I researched the word family because I love my family but I am angry with how they behave and expect others to ignore their ignorant behaviors while they are pointing out your behaviors. Next I worked on the word nationality. I found very interesting definitions for this word but again I had a hard time fleshing out a paper for my class. I also looked up the meaning of freedom. That is another interesting word that most people throw around like loose pennies. Unrestricted, not hindered in any way; to be free from enslavement... still I was unable to craft an essay for English.
This really has me confused because I wanted to turn my paper in early but now it has come down to the wire, so what do I do???