Carpe Diem!
Nowadays all of us have become so focused on the future and what comes next and on the past reminiscing about what we did, and what we should have done, that we’ve started to forget how to live. We don’t get to live our lives twice. So perhaps it’s time we remembered that, and started seizing the day with confidence and doing what we’ve always wanted to do.
Now is the only time which really matters. Teenagers, as a general rule, are always under a lot of pressure from our parents, our teachers and even our friends to start deciding what we want to do in life and to fulfil the tremendous number of responsibilities we have. But for now, we have to learn that it’s okay to make mistakes, to act out, to do what we feel is right, and to go with our instincts because this is the time when above all, we need to live in the moment. We need to go out there and make mistakes because that is the only way that we will ever learn, and the only way we will ever be able to survive in the real world. After all, this is the point of our teen years, our school years, isn’t it? To learn?
When we’re having fun doing something, the first thing we remember to do is to take a photo and either snapchat it or post it on Facebook or instagram. We do this to ‘preserve the memories’. What we don’t realise is that if we were actually concentrating on what was going on, we might have had an even better experience, and we might not have to rely on pictures to remember something that we really should never have forgotten in the first place.
For most of human history, humans had a life span of only about 30 years or so, and thus they did not have any time or the need to plan for college, their future, how to get a job, etc. And now life has become the future. Every moment of your life is used to prepare for the future–you go to school and study hard so that you can get into a good college so that you can get a high paying job so that you can get a nice house so you that can afford to send your kids to college so that they can get a good job so that they can get a nice house so that they can afford to send their kids to college.
One of my favourite books is Paper Towns by John Green and he talks about this quite a bit, about how everyone has become paper people living in paper towns which were never built to last, just working towards the future not realizing how it affects specific individuals of the society. How some people can’t take the pressure, the sheer superficiality of school and life. How some people are forced to take their own lives because always living for the future is not for them, but no one lets them live in the now.
We need to start changing our
perceptions about life and learn that while planning for the future has its
place in the scheme of things, we need to keep our focus on the present. None of us can predict the future, or change
the past, but today is something that we can definitely influence by living in
the moment. So, Seize the Day!
Carpe Diem!
