Walking through the halls of my high school recently, a message has become more and more engraved in my mind. This is it. After this year, I will be done with public school forever. It’s not like I didn’t know that before, but now that the whole college application process is over and I am waiting to hear back, it is almost as if life has come to a standstill. A standstill that is ironically flying by. I can quite literally remember starting the sixth grade, almost as if it was yesterday. It feels like just yesterday I was beginning my journey to the top as an incoming freshman.

Next year, I won’t be lining up to take a picture for my high school ID, nor will I walk through the doors of Nashua High School South a grade higher. This is the end. After this, adulthood will be knocking on the door, and life will begin to set in. What I accomplish in my future is completely up to me, and that is the most exciting yet frightening part of graduating high school. Most of everyone who I know now as my friends will be off on their journey, tons of paths separate from mine.

This is why I believe that now is the most important part of life. Yes, planning for the future is important, however if you become caught up in the future then you are missing out on the history you are making now. That’s why I say every second I spend with the people I know now is worth it. Every penny I spend in our money-demanding society is worth it. I say this because a year from now, it will be a whole new world. Though everyone will be in the same shoes as me, I will never be able to call myself a senior in high school again. I will never again be able to live in the moment at my final year in high school. The value of taking part in activities now is the memory it will create when I reminisce upon high school.

That’s why if you have been holding out on visiting a school event, hanging out with your friends, or maybe taking a risk (and I remind you, drugs are bad), I say go for it. Make that time. Many of us have a sport, activity, or job that keeps us busy every day of our life, but if we give in to that societal message saying that the future is everything then once that future we once dreamed about arrives we'll lose that aspect of special in our past. It is because of the “would haves” and “ should haves” that I say this, because I myself have way too many. If at this age opportunity shows its face, take that opportunity. I would not be writing this article now if I hadn’t taken the opportunity to write it.

The moral of this whole collection of words is that you are living your life right now in the present. Yes you should absolutely prepare for your future, but don’t get so caught up in preparing that you forget to live your life now, because you’ll never receive that time back again.