Do you ever get into those moods where it feels like there is nothing you can do to stop your future from becoming an absolute failure?

It is like everything we do affects our next move, and when something bad happens, it is like it is going to stay like that forever.I failed that test. Guess I'm not going to do well on the next one either. Ugh. Why the hell did I do that? Why did I say that? Why did I eat that? Why didn’t I do this instead? For me at least, these kinds of thoughts happen multiple times a day.

We are always dwelling on the past or trying to create our future, but are we ever living in the moment?

Now, I know what you are all thinking… that sounds very corny and cliche, but it's something that I think we can all relate to. Living in the moment? What does that even mean?

Well, there is no firm definition and that's because what it is for me is different from you, and what it is for you is different from someone else.

Well, I hate to break to you but… although the future is important, there is nothing we can do about the past, good or bad, other than to learn from it, and therefore, why not living in the moment and be spontaneous?

Yes, I know school and work can be very stressful, you HAVE to plan ahead and know whats going on, but that's not why I'm persuading you to live in the moment.

How many times do we worry about things and later they don't even end up happening? According to an article from The Huffington Post, “It turns out that 85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened.". Shocking right? But, wait for this... The Huffington Post also conducted an experiment in order to discover what people worry about and “79 percent of the subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning.

This means that 97 percent of what you worry about is not much more than “a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.

Yes, alright, in that rare percentage of time when what we are most concerned about happens, most people in the long run actually see that particular occurrence as a learning experience rather than a catastrophe.

I, myself, deal with much anxiety and stress as I suppose you all do, but I’m always worrying about things I have absolutely no control over. How many times do you regret doing something and think, shit, why the hell did I do that, and then a week, later it's the most irrelevant thing.

That's the funny thing... we scare ourselves constantly about things we have no power over and then we psych ourselves out to the point where we can't even do the work we need to get done in the present.

We are always thinking about how we need to think ahead and plan our future, but what about being spontaneous?

Do what you want to do and stop letting other people dictate your happiness.

Wear that shirt to school you have been questioning, date the person you want, take that job, do what you want, be who you want, LOVE WHO YOU WANT If that means loving a cactus, then LOVE A CACTUS IF THAT IS WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY!

The only person who can make you truly happy is yourself.

One of my favorite quotes by C.S. Lewis is “Don't let your happiness depend on something you may lose.” Now I know it's very cliche, but it actually is a good reminder. Do something that you thought you'd never be able to do, prove yourself wrong. If that means climbing a tree or doing something as extreme as going skydiving, then do it! In an article by Ivan Campuzano, he writes, “ I would rather suffer from my fears than to be a slave to fixed ideas, to be tied down to the known and comfortable. I strive to live in the new and unknown where anything can happen because that’s where I feel truly alive”(freedom from the known).

I interpreted what he said as it's better to face your fears and aspire to great things than be in a safe zone and be standard for the rest of your life. There are going to be bumps in the road, but in the end, it's gonna be worth it...right?

But… sometimes there needs to be structure... sometimes. For example, if you have to go to practice, maybe don't eat a whole box of pizza before? Or if you have a huge job interview the next day, maybe don't spend the whole night watching season 2 of Stranger Things... Okay, that's advice I really need to take. On a more serious note...

Sometimes structure is a good thing because it teaches us how to be organized and responsible for our actions, but that is not to say that everything has to be all planned out. I believe we are taught to only go in one direction in life, for example, what we say, what we post on Instagram, how we dress, what kind of music we listen to, what we need to be to be successful.

There is an endless list of expectations, but I think in order to live in the moment, we need to first become our own person.

This is not to say you have to try to be different, but actually, do what you like to do.

If that happens to be what many others like to do, then great, and if not... that's great too. Because let's be for real. After high school how many people are you really going to stay in touch with? So, who cares what people say now. If you do something crazy and regret it, it's a learning experience.

That's what all of this is... being a teenager, one big learning experience. If we live in our little bubble and play it safe, we are never going to learn anything.

ALSO..You don't have to go out every Friday night to have fun. If you just want to stay at home and watch TV and eat your entire body weight, then do it! If you want to go out and hang out with friends, then do it! Who cares about the Snapchat story... nobody watches it anyway... let's be for real.

So hey, you failed that test to go to bed early. You probably needed those hours of sleep more than studying.

Yeah, you ate a whole Ben and Jerry's container of ice cream by yourself... BUT IT WAS GOOD, WASN'T IT?

Maybe you skipped a practice to sleep that ONE TIME, deal with the mess later.

A wise woman named Hannah Montana once sung that “They say that good things take time, but really great things happen in a blink of an eye.” Meaning you are going to get something GOOD out of something planned usually, but amazing things happen spontaneously.

So, live life to the fullest.

We are only teenagers and we are only going to get to be teenagers once. We have our whole life to be adults with plans and responsibilities, so now is the time to take advantage of all that life has to offer us... and live in the moment.