Unless you've been living under a rock the past thirty years, you've probably heard Ferris Bueller's famous monologue, in which he lays down some pretty profound gospel - "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you can miss it."
As the end of August approaches with the new school year, it's hard not to look back on your summer with criticism. I should have gone on that road trip. I wish I'd gone to the beach more. I wish I'd thrown that massive party when my parents were on vacation. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't have at least one regret about their summer. It's like we save all our adventures for the summer, and if we don't check off our bucket list, we failed to live up to our potential. It's actually rather maddening.
I'm twenty years old, halfway through college, and realizing that I've let a lot of my life slip by without notice. I have regrets about things I wish I'd done when I was younger, and I'm not even legally allowed to drink yet. It's time that I, and a great many other people my age, start seriously taking Ferris Bueller's words to heart.
Stop saving your bucket list for summers, for the weekends. Get drunk on a Tuesday night with your best friends. Kiss as many people as you want, boys or girls. Tell that person you love them to pieces. Spend the money on a weekend getaway. Stop being the mom of the friend group, and for once, let loose and go wild. Don't refuse things just because you think they're cliché or overrated, because it's often those clichés we missed out on that we regret the most.
Let's get real for a second and face the facts: life is short. Extremely freaking short. We're all going to go one day, so why do we act like tomorrow's a guarantee? We go to school, we get jobs, we work and pay bills until we're practically decrepit, and then we spend the remainder of our days wasting away in nursing homes, wishing we'd done more when we were young.
Well surprise, kiddies, we are the young. We'll never be younger than we are now, never more able-bodied and free to do what we want. If you want to spend six months wandering through Europe, do it. If you want to major in French Romantic art, do it. If you want to spend $400 on a sweater you adore, do it. This is the time when we set the foundations for what we will do for the rest of our lives. Stop putting off vacations for another year. Stop staying in on Friday nights, claiming you'll go out next weekend. Live in the now, seize the days and the nights. Life is a gift and you better treat it like one. When you die, I hope you have the chance to look back on all you've done and that you can say, Damn, I had a pretty rad life.
