"What are you doing?
Planning for the future?
Well
It's all right now.
But later?... Forget it baby.
That's later.
Now is now.
Are you going to
Be here
Or not?
It's as simple as that."
--Ram Dass

We're being dragged into the dusty past -- memories coated with a thin layer of gray lint -- by our laments for yesterday. Our limbs are being stretched into the future -- an elusive, euphoric realm -- by our aspirations, our ambitions, our dreams. But what about now?

In Ram Dass's best selling book, "Be Here Now," seemingly incoherent rants dance across the pages, words pirouetting in bold, capitalized font and finally curtseying with a final bow, emphasizing the importance of merely living in the moment. The book is emboldened with randomness -- loose strings of beautifully beaded words that braid into a statement necklace, gleaming with shining diamonds of Ram Dass's mantras. When flipping through the purposefully discolored pages, the black ink grabs your attention and truly pulls you into the book's depth -- the innumerable layers that each person interprets from a different perspective.

But as the title reiterates in a blunt eternal circle, the core of Ram Dass's message is complexly simple: "Remember. Be here now." Though easily said, the demand -- vital to one's happiness -- is nearly impossible to tackle. As I strive to focus on this lonely moment dangling in an infinite chain of time, my current thoughts bleed into my memories and trickle into my future goals. It should be easy: I am sitting in my bed, a white comforter muddled into a fluffy mess at the end of my bed, hiding my feet; the scent of coffee wafting from my ceramic mug; infant drops of daylight filtering through my sheer curtain. But as my fingers try to mimic the movement of the words in "Be Here Now," awkwardly tap-dancing along the keys in a much less graceful manner, I can't help but think about my upcoming exam or yearn for high school, when exams were near nonexistent. My mind is defiant to let go of its strong grip on the past while it simultaneously grasps at the future's possibilities.

But this single moment occurring right now is the only capacity of time we have control over. The past is etched into stone, immobile and irreversible; the future is uncertain. But right now, at this very second, we can choose how we feel, what we do, and how this moment will play out.

While it's necessary to acknowledge the past -- the memories that propelled us toward where we are (here and now) -- and think about what effects we want to see in the future, it is of utmost importance to execute the causals in this moment that will translate into who we want to become. We are given the malleable clay of each second to sculpt our lives into whatever we'd like. Of course, the changes will take time -- we won't see them until several moments later. But we only have the power to mold ourselves in the single moment in which we currently reside.

As college students, it is particularly hard to transport ourselves from our scheduled lives and into the present, but it is essential to being productive and pursuing our dreams and moving past our mistakes.

So, in the gushing riptide of flowing time, settle into this effervescent moment and feel the liquid possibilities rush over you -- the past has washed ashore, the future swells on the horizon, and the present is drifting by as we speak. Let go, and ride out the moment of right now.

Buy Ram Dass's book "Be Here Now" here.