I was sitting the other night with my friends, in our favorite bar, like we always did and for the first time in a really long time I opened my eyes to take in the memory. I mean really just tried to record every shot of tequila as it slammed back into their mouths, every pong ball that was thrown across the room, my two friends making out completely unaware that anyone was even around them. I do this sometimes when I really want to remember a place, or a person, and it helps me to keep building on my memories. Because one day, we aren't going to be 20-years-old anymore. We aren't going to be able to drink two pitchers of beer by ourselves on a Wednesday afternoon, or spend all day wasting away in the sun. One day we're going to have to be real, functioning adults, and all these little moments will become just a blurred bifocal in our minds.

And as I sat there I tried to imagine us all in our lives one day, old and worn, walking around an overgrown yard with our grandchildren, and it hurt to think that my life one day would not be the way it was at that very moment. When we're in our 20s, we think we are these impenetrable creatures, that real life can't pierce. We think that our version of "now" is real life. But it is amazing to think that we're resting in a limbo, a part of our life where we can try to figure ourselves out before we have to be real, real adults.

So, in the wake of that realization, I sat there and tried to record each of my friend's faces in their alcohol-induced youth. The way they stacked their cups after finishing a drink, the way she sang along to the throwback on the radio, the way he looked at me when I laughed. I looked at all their eyes, brown, green, blue, and I tried to make sure I would never forget the way these people made me feel. Because as much as I would like to think so, we will not be 20 forever. We might not even be friends forever, and one day we're all going to be some uncool parents packing carrot sticks for our 3rd grader's lunch. Because 30 years ago, my parents were probably sitting at their favorite bar with their best friends, singing along to Bruce Springsteen and thinking they would never get older. And now I watch my dad take his high blood pressure medicine with a hurt in his eye and it just brings everything full circle.

Because time is something that isn't as flexible as everyone thinks. It is unforgiving and persistent and if we do not value the days we have while we are in this limbo age of freedom and slim responsibility, we will be 75 sitting on the back porch and when our grandchildren ask us a story about when we were younger, what will we tell them? How will you choose to remember your youth? So the next time you're in a moment you feel you're going to want to tell someone about one day, open your eyes, open your mind, and take it all in, you'll never be as young as you are right now again.