My first moments of the New Year were spent on my friend’s living room floor, shooting people with a Nerf crossbow. They weren't spent in a loud party, searching for a person to kiss at midnight, nor were they spent at home, upset that I was not out partying. No one scrambled to find someone to kiss. The one legitimate couple in the room forgot to kiss until about fifteen minutes after midnight. I wasn’t on my phone, waiting for a hundred Snapchats all saying the same thing.
My first moments of 2017 were spent with my favorite people. They were spent joyfully, carelessly, and spontaneously. It was glorious. Looking back on it, I miss it because so much of my life is planned and follows a schedule and I never thought I’d enjoy randomly doing things with people. I got to spend time with a guy that I had practically just met and for once it wasn't awkward. I got to be around beautiful young ladies that inspire and amaze me every day. The evening started with a plan. It ended in a way I couldn’t have imagined.
My first moments of 2017 were not spent like they were the first moments of a new year. They were just a couple of moments out of a million.
I’m starting to realize that doing mundane things with people you love make them more than mundane. I’ve discovered that Waffle House is a perfect place for hanging out. I’ve learned what my mother has been telling me since eighth grade: Be where you are. Be with those around you. Stop thinking about what comes next.
I’ve tried to plan my life since freshman year because I learned that life loves to throw curveballs and earthquakes at you and I hate not knowing what’s coming next. Now I’m rewiring my brain to entertain the idea that going with the flow and living in the moment is fun. In the past three months, I’ve had so many surprise adventures with lovely people. I didn’t know that going to Rome would lead to visiting two graveyards just because. I had only planned to see two dear friends. I didn’t know that you could visit and enjoy two bookstores in one day. I had assumed we’d stop after the library. I didn’t know that riding in my middle school crush’s truck would ever happen; I definitely didn’t expect it meant sharing the front seat with a giant speaker. Nevertheless, I threw caution to the wind, in a sense. I felt something strange with every new adventure, exhilarating joy from deep inside my chest. I didn’t care where we were going or what would happen next. They were just moments, moments like the ones before only better.
My first moments of the New Year were not by any means remarkable. But therein lies the beauty of it. There was nothing special. But I was present, as was the motley crew of jokers and dorks that I gladly call my friends. It was amazing. It still is. And yes, all of this is cheesy and slightly uncharacteristic of my own thinking but it means something to me. Mundane moments are seemingly few and far between but they don’t have to be. As soon as I left my friend’s house, early in the morning of 2017, I sent a text to one of the girls I’d been with.“God, I want to drive back over there and just be in the crazy and never let it go. Or actually, let it go- only to fuel the next adventure.”
Live in the moment. Be where you are but don’t cling to the past. Keep on living. The adventures, whether grand or rather insignificant, that find you are generally the more memorable ones.
