Live for the Present

Being home is always a mixed bag for me. High school was miserable, and college has always been my escape. But recent events in my home town have taught me to think about the future while concentrating on the present. A junior boy from my high school was killed on Mother's Day when he slipped getting out of a truck, accidentally shooting himself in the head with the gun he held in his hand. Because the truck was stuck in the snow, the person he was with (a senior from my high school, and a pretty good friend of mine) had to run for over a mile to look for help. The poor boy died 10 minutes into the drive to the hospital.

My whole town is in shock over this. In a town of 3,000, young people are the center of the community. To lose somebody so horribly and suddenly has made everybody reevaluate their priorities in life as well as appreciate what they have.

I'm writing this because I think that we all have a tendency to take ourselves out of our present situations, focusing instead on our lives after college, next month, or even next weekend. By not taking time out of our days to say hello to our old friends while making new ones, or putting off that phone call to an elderly family member, we forget about the small joys that make life so wonderful.

Don't procrastinate on spending time with the people you love. Eat what you want. Don't feel guilty for saying no to doing something you don't want to do. Forget about the trivial shit life likes to throw at you. I have a problem with this myself, but I'll be damned if I'm going to go through life miserable and missing every minute of it.