I walked
into the lobby of my dormitory today and saw a heart with an arrow drawn on a
dry-erase board. For an instant, I had a
small panic attack—have I missed an entire month? Then I remembered: oh yeah, our culture gets
ready for holidays weeks in advance.
Christmas is the worst. This year
I knew several people who had mentally skipped both Thanksgiving and
Halloween. But hey, we just want to be
prepared, right? Heaven forbid we not be
completely sick of a holiday before it even arrives.
People
always say to live in the moment, but it seems to go against human nature. We spent so much of our time looking forward
to something, with certain special dates always in the back of our minds. For me, it’s March 1st, March 13th,
May 20th, and after that I have to be worried about not having
plans. There are others in there, family
birthdays, days I have to pay my bills…all days that have not come yet, but
still take some of today away from me in how much I think about them.
When we’re
not looking forward, we’re looking back.
This kind of reflection normally comes under the category of “should”
and its relatives “could” and “would.” I
should have worked on that project, I should have made that phone call…I could
have gone to the gym, I would have finished my paper. It’s a strange concept—I missed doing this,
but at least I regret it, that makes it better, right? No, actually, regret over such small things
wastes even more time.
Let’s all
make a mental realignment. Save your
neck the strain, figuratively speaking, and spend some time in today. Appreciate January while you can—it’s a nice
month, after all, rather relaxing after all the fuss over Thanksgiving and
Christmas. Take the day and use it well,
because that’s all you can do. In my
opinion, it’s better to have few plans and be surprised than to have many plans
and be surprised anyway. Tomorrow will
come when it’s good and ready.
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