“Slow down,” they say. “Life is going to pass you by before you realize it. and you’re going to wish you hadn’t sped through it.”

It is unfortunately true. We spend our lives waiting for the next big thing. We are a generation that depends on fresh, instant content. It is a commonality in our culture to say things like “I can’t wait for…” “I wish I was ____ years older so I can do such and such.”

We never take the time to stop and take in what's going on around us anymore, and as a result, we're missing out, and most likely feeling a lot of regret as a result.

Regardless of how hard some of your days might be, your present is what you make of it. You can be in a bad situation and look around and still find something worth you being where you are at that exact moment in time.

Have you ever thought about your life as a child, and realized that all of your memories are fading quickly? Could it be because when you were little, your biggest dream was to be a “grown up”?

Think a little about when you were in elementary school. You were probably dying to get out of there and walk the slightly bigger halls of middle school. As soon as that dream came true, you were undoubtedly rushing your life ahead to the even bigger halls of high school. What should happen then but a continuation of the cycle. You spent four years dreaming about being a college student, playing your first collegiate game, or even just being independent and free.

But now what?

The reality is, we won’t ever sit in those same desks, next to our high school peers, learning from our favorite high school teachers ever again. You willed yourself past it and so here you are now. College, the last stop before adulthood.

High school may have been a rough four years, but if you could just get back some of the amazing times you had while there, what would you do with it? What would you give to go back and relive your last school spirit night? Another chance to be homecoming king or queen? To play your senior night game over again?

What would you change, knowing what you know now?

Yes, we may be having an amazing time in college now, but don’t push forward to where you expect to be after graduation, because this too will be gone before you know it. Where you will be then is the workforce, not in these desks, next to your friends, learning from your favorite professors

So hold yourself accountable. Keep track of the times you long for graduation, whether verbally or in thoughts. Control your desire for what is to come. It will be here sooner than you realize, and that's not necessarily a good thing. You only get to be as old as you are once, so live it up.