Maybe it is a category mistake to say we "have" a life. No deed to the property has been issued.
The light and darkness are mine, if I bring them in. Desire fills my mouth before I can speak.
Before I can interrogate this life, I will need to restrain it and get it into a chair.
But I cannot. My incapacity is oddly joined with its disinterest in my designs.

We call plants alive but they don't have life.

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Plants are alive as they fit into biological criteria of living, which as follows;

• Responsiveness to the environment.

• The ability to grow

• Procreation.

• Respire.

• Excrete.

• Have a unique set of cells.

• Move (Plants follow patterns of light energy).

To answer your question, several philosophers have a different perspective towards the essence of life. To begin, it should follow through by attributes of a person — and yes, you definitely are a living thing. What makes you, you though, is your attributes. Wherein attributes can either be: Accidental, or Essential. Accidental attributes, is like a handle of a knife, that can be wooden or rubber. An essential attribute, is what makes a knife, a knife, is it's blade — where without it, it would not be a knife.

For a human being, is where it gets tricky. Interestingly, numerous Philosophers from the roots of early existentialism and just dark nihilism, have paradoxical concepts of them. Some believed that life is just meaningless, wherein it's meaninglessness, actually makes the meaning. For an existentialist's view, they believe that it is up to you to develop that essence and thus, giving meaning to a meaningless life.

Life is a duration of time within which a self-replicating container of energized tissue can support "microorganisms", as far as I can tell.