There's been an idea that I've gone back and forth on whether or not I believe it ever since I graduated college. But now I'm convinced it's true.
You can't soak up the present and save it for the future. It's impossible.
There are plenty of times when I've been deciding on whether or not to do something, and the only reason I feel like I should do it is because, "I'm gonna miss this. In 20 years, I'll look back and yearn for these days. I should savor it while I can."
But that's a fallacy. Not that you're gonna miss it, but that your action now will have any impact on whether or not you miss it in 20 years.
Because you're gonna miss it regardless. In 20 years, you'll want to do it, but you can't, because that time has passed, and you're not getting it back. If you have a month left of college and know you're gonna miss it when you're 30 so you go out and get black-out drunk every night for the last four weeks to "soak it in while you can," that's great, but you're not helping yourself. Because when you're 30 and scrolling through your camera roll and randomly come across a picture of you and your college friends half-asleep on the quad playing Twister at 2 am, you're still gonna look back and be like, "Dang, I miss college."
You can't soak up the present and save it for the future. It's impossible. It's not worth trying.
So if you want to do something, great. Go do it. But if you only feel like you should do something because in 20 years you'll wish you could do it again, don't do it. Because you can't change that. Don't live the present for the future. Just live the present for the present. It's all you can control.
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