At nineteen, it's easy to waste all of your time thinking about the future. Why wouldn't it be? You're old enough to have prospects, to envision career paths and potential families; you're young enough to still have a mostly clean slate ahead of you. It's the ideal vantage point.

It's also a dangerous vantage point.

There's so much to look forward to that sometimes the present slips out from under your feet without you noticing. Weeks go missing, never to be reclaimed. Seasons spiral into one another at dizzying speeds--the leaves turn red, then they're gone, then it's summer again.

I know all of this from my own experience. It feels like minutes ago that I was turning eighteen and wondering what college would be like. Now I'm nineteen and wondering what my first internship will be like, my first apartment, my first job...the list goes on, and will continue to do so indefinitely. I'll never reach a point in my life where I'll have absolutely nothing to look forward to. I'll continue to grow and mature, and with each stage of development will come new goals, new fears, new firsts.

So the question becomes: when will I start living for today? When will you?

It's not as simple as it sounds. In college, your present and future are irrevocably tied together in an intricate knot. Sometimes, being mentally involved in the here-and-now takes active concentration. But there are little exercises you can do to bring yourself back to the moment you're in. My favorite one is simply making a list of all the unique things I love and appreciate about my life as it is now.

At age nineteen:

I love my own physical energy. This is something I’ll miss when I’m older, no question. I delight in the fact that I can run three to four miles every day and often have to end my work out solely due to time constraints rather than fatigue.

I love that I can be whoever I wish at this age. I feel like while I’m at college I exist in this little bubble. Before I entered, I had a set persona. After I leave, I will assume a new one as I enter the workforce and eventually become a parent. But right now I am not expected to fulfill any role other than the role of student. I could change my style daily and it wouldn’t matter one bit. I can (and have) changed my work ethic drastically: I’ve allowed myself to indulge my laziness, and I’ve also reaped the rewards of working diligently. I can party and socialize or stay in and read books and not one of these things defines me at this time in my life. I can embrace or reject any identity I want to. It feels good to remind myself of that.

I love my adaptability. College means constantly changing schedules, updating routines, and meeting new requirements. It means always being on my toes. This makes me feel sharp and keeps me one step ahead of the game. I love that I’ve abandoned all sense of complacency.

Finally, I love going to bed feeling enormously fulfilled. Each day I achieve some combination of the following: exercising, socializing, attending meetings, writing papers, studying, laughing, interviewing. No matter what, by the end of the day I'm confident I've made the most of it. Just today I secured my first internship and aced an exam, and it felt great. Yes, there are unexpected (and expected) disappointments that come along with being nineteen, but the triumphs are more than glorious enough to make up for those.

I know that soon enough I'll give in to the temptation of dreaming about the future. And I know that the day I turn twenty, or the day I graduate college, or the day I get married, I'll wonder where the time went. But today I'm focusing on being exactly where I am. I know that there was a time that I dreamed of being nineteen, and I'm living that dream, and it feels pretty fantastic.