Best friends forever, together forever, young forever. People throw the word "forever" around like it's a breath of air, and I'm guilty of this too. There's a lot of depth for an unknown tomorrow in that one word. It holds a lot of weight, and a secret promise that everything will always be the same, and nothing will ever change. But the reality is that forever is a long time. It's something extremely unknown and impossible to prepare for. There is no real way for someone to know what is coming around the corner for them. There is no real way of knowing what comes next, and for how long it may be there. Not only is there lifetimes of uncertainty waiting for us beyond today, but we also don't know how other people will feel come tomorrow or the next day or next week or next year.
The problem is that people change. As much as we don't wan them to, people change their minds, they change their opinions, their thoughts, etc. They make changes in their lives that are less permanent than you originally anticipated. People move away, or get different friends, and your plan for forever suddenly took a leap in a completely different direction. The plans and goals you may have had have suddenly changed dramatically, and you can't do anything to change it.
You see, to me, the idea of forever is really quite intimidating. There's such a long time between now and forever, whenever the end of that time may be. I change my mind from day to day about what I want and how i feel and who I'm happy to have in my life. The thought of having the same experience for many many years forward is really strange. Like when you meet someone and you're talking about marriage with them and spending the rest of your lives together, don't you get nervous that you'll run out of things to talk about? Or you'll forget how to love like you do in the current moment? When you say you're going to work in one job for the rest of your life, don't you worry you'll get bored, or start to hate it? Or when you say you're going to have friend forever, don't you think even for a second that maybe there will be a time when you disagree on something major and fall apart, or that you will both find new people to be friends with and happen to forget about the close bond you have now?
Of course none of this is going through your mind, but it definitely is scary to think about once it does get placed in your mind, you can't help but to think about it every now and then. It's weird that day by day, nothing seems to change too drastically, but in actuality decisions you make each second of every day have huge impacts on the future you are going to live. When you look back at the life you've been living, you can see all the paths that have led you to where you are now, and how many changes in your "forever" plans have taken place to get to where you are. The future is never definite. Any one action can change the rest of your forever permanently. And yes, it is scary. It's hard to tell how you'll be feeling in a few days or months or years.
I'm sorry if this sounds pessimistic, but I'm not saying you shouldn't live in the moment of the now. The future is unknown, yes that's true. And your "forever" plans may not be forever after all. But that doesn't mean you should worry that you will lose your friends or fall out of love or hate the life path you choose from today on. Its the opposite actually. Yes forever is a long time, and yes the idea of not knowing how it will turn out is frightening to say the least(and may even give you a slight existential crisis). But because the future is unknown, you should appreciate what you have in this moment. You should love with all your heart, and do with all your mind, and make as many friends as you can, because you may not get to experience these wonderful things a long as you like, and the feelings you receive from great friends and sharing all the love in your heart for the one you're dating and expressing your passion for the career and educational path that you are passionate about, these things may not always be around for you to appreciate. Take life one day at a time, and try not to be scared of what could come in the future. Time clicks on, whether you stop to enjoy it or not, so you might as well enjoy it. Make the moments count, and make memories that last for all of your forever.
