Senior to Senior: Wishing Time Away

Why do we do it? We spend an entire lifetime waiting, wishing, and looking ahead instead of appreciating what we have right now. Are you addicted to the future? Spending time preparing for tomorrow is one thing, but always pinning your hopes on the next milestone is something else. Still, we do it; it starts when the 3-year-old proudly announces that he/she is 3 and ½, already believing that being 4 will be the ultimate achievement. Pre-teens can’t wait to be teenagers. Teenagers can’t wait to be 18, and then 21. It isn’t always about age, remember when you counted the minutes till the end of a boring class, counted the days until the weekend, and then counted the days until your vacation. The future always beckoned, offering what…something better? We thought and dreamed about going to school, about leaving home, about entering the job market, about meeting soul mates, about buying first homes, and so on and so forth. It what we do. It’s the way we are programed. You don’t notice that the clock is ticking, that time is slipping away, until the end of the road is in sight. Suddenly, the future doesn’t look quite so bright. It’s too late to get those minutes back. The time wasted “wishing” and “yearning” for future events is over. You can’t stuff that particular genie back into the bottle. It is what it is. You are “old” now. All the wishes in the world aren’t going to change that. The clock is still ticking. Time is moving on. You yell “stop,” but you can’t help yourself. Right now you are probably wishing that summer were over, because you are tired of the heat. Would you stop looking forward to fall if, God forbid, this summer were to be your last? That’s a sobering thought. Maybe you should stop “wishing” time away and think a little more about living for today. You have little control over the future, but you can control today. Make today the first day, the best day, of the rest of your life. Love the moment that you are in.