Recently, my professor asked us to talk about our futures, hopes, and dreams. We had to do this and put in a video. While planning this video, I am realizing that I don’t want to plan out my future right now. Why should I?

I know my goals and stuff I would kind of like to achieve within the next ten or so years, but that takes me twenty or thirty seconds to say at most. This video has to be between two or three minutes long, and I have no idea how to fill that time up with content that’s going to get me a good grade.

I know that I want to be an employed high school science teacher within the next 5 years, and I would like to be in the process of getting my Master’s in Education.

That’s it, and I hate thinking about this. In high school, I was always planning my future, waiting for the moment that I could be done and have graduated. I wasted my youth because I didn’t cherish those moments and I miss my high school on a daily basis.

Towards the end, I realized my high school was my safe place and I felt my best there. When I went back for Thanksgiving, everything hit me and all the amazing memories came back. I saw the teachers that inspired me to be a teacher, and I missed that place. All of this is because I focused on the future too much, and I didn’t focus on the present.

I realized this during the week I was graduating, and I didn’t want to do this in college. My goal for college was to live in the moment, and to cherish the little things that come with it. In the moments I’ve done that, those moments were my happiest moments. I am not spontaneous at all, and I want to get better at that. At college, I am surrounded by this every single day and it’s amazing.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I have breakfast with the same three people and I love it. The conversations I have with these people make my day, and I learn a lot from these people. During these breakfasts, I am not on my phone or worried about the future, I am with these people grasping onto every word they say.

These three people have made me like college and realize there’s hope for me to excel socially. The best part, this was all random. I saw these people that I knew from a club at the dining hall one day, and we all sat together one day, the next day, and it became this thing. I go into these conversations not having any expectations, and it’s incredible. They motivate me to do work, and we help each other with our life problems. It’s amazing.

I live in the moment with these people, and now I have to plan my future. Why? I am 18 years old, and I should be able to enjoy living in the moment.

Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about rent and bills. I have the ability to live in the moment and to have fun. Time flies by, and in high school I didn’t cherish that.

End of the day, will I do this assignment? Yes, but it’s going to be a challenge because I want to be genuine in the video, and I don’t quite know the exact plan for my future. That’s something that I’ll worry about another time.