The certainty of tomorrow is a fantasy. The overwriting of yesterday is impossible. However, the present taps into the potential to make tomorrow greater than both today and yesterday. The more we focus on what we’ll do tomorrow, or how we screwed up yesterday, the faster the window for opportunity that today holds will begin to close. A lot of people might argue that living for the moment is rash or juvenile, but I say nonsense. As uncertain as we can be about even waking up tomorrow, why not make every moment have an impact? This idea is cliche or excruciatingly optimistic, but it holds substance.
On December 31st, 2015, at around 11:30 pm, one of my best friends, Alex, asked me, “What is one thing you want to do before you die?” I had no answer. I was sitting in a room with six of my friends, and they all watched me, waiting for a reply. I had none. Today is January 2nd, 2016. This question has been haunting me to say the least. I never give my “bucket list” any thought because I’ve given the phrase such a negative meaning. I have life goals, but they do not usually involve the phrase “before I die” behind them. Since then, I have thought about it over and over again, and unfortunately I still do not have an answer. Instead i’ve come up with the realization that I think too much about the future. I’ve realized that as I’ve gotten older, i’ve start to grasp what the “real world” is that my parents used to warn me about as a kid. I begin to realize the slow disappearance of the importance of streetlights, the all-day unofficial sports tournaments hosted by friendship, I double-check every step i take. I constantly false-start out of anticipated responsibility. I’ve forgotten about the importance of the very moment because from the first day of high school, we are “programmed” to be so strictly oriented. We are told that everything we do from the beginning of high school, to the end of college, will affect our professional and maybe even personal lives in the future. Another good friend of mine, Dasha Mikhailova, a senior at Roanoke College, gave me a great piece of advice. She warned me about the dangers of being too future-oriented. She advised that I enjoy the moment while it lasts because these moments will not happen twice in a lifetime. Every word was accurate. The moments that we share will not be able to be relived second for second, so why let them go to waste? We should preserve the present so that our future will be full of cherished memories of the past.
