Rosario Dawson Speaks Out For The First Time Since Finding Cousin Dead

The Sin City actress is opening up for the first time since she found her 26-year-old cousin, Vaneza Ines Vazquez, dead in May 2017.

"I've been dealing with a lot of loss lately and reconnecting with my family and my friends in a different way," Rosario Dawson told AOL in an interview for their BUILD series.

Dawson, who also spoke about her work with The Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York, described how the recent death of Vazquez made her realize she should "never take anything for granted" and "to constantly be working on yourself and take advantage of every moment."

As Nicki Swift previously reported, Dawson found her cousin unresponsive in her home on May 11, 2017. Paramedics quickly arrived on the scene, but, unfortunately, they could not resuscitate Vasquez and soon pronounced her dead. Early autopsy results indicated that Vasquez, who had reportedly been suffering from migraines and hypertension before her death, likely passed away due to natural causes.

"Tomorrow is not guaranteed," the 38-year-old explained, "and you want to make sure the people that you love know that, and that you're doing things with your time that you're proud of, because it goes by so fast. It gets really easy to get caught up in the minutiae, but then ... you realize, 'I can be so much bigger and so much more.' We're the only ones who are stopping ourselves from having that."

Dawson revealed that she wants to continue to better herself. She admitted that she'd like to go back to school and continue her education, as well as learn how to better manage her time and become more organized.  "I don't want to be lazy," Dawson stated. "I don't want to take anything for granted."

But more importantly, Dawson shared with the crowd, she wants to do as much as she can because she doesn't want to live a life of missed opportunities. "My cousin just died, Vaneza, and I'm coming up on the six-year anniversary of my grandmother's passing. And from 75 to 26, you just don't know when your time is," she said. "And I just don't want to be in any kind of position where I'm looking back going, 'I should've, could've, would've, didn't, damn!'"