Graphic courtesy of Derek Marshall.

This previous weekend when I went to HomeGoods with my mom I was shocked to find out the Fourth of July decorations were already out. The thing is… July isn’t for nearly another three months.

 Why should I be shocked, though, when it’s been this way for a while? Resee’s pumpkins can be found a week after the Fourth of July, Sweethearts can be found in December, and chocolate easter bunnies on Valentine’s Day. It seems as though we are always looking forward to the next thing and as cliche as it sounds; we are never living in the moment. 

Seniors are probably yearning for the day that closes their high school story for good. Juniors are anxiously awaiting having to go through the long and dreadful application process that they feel will determine a big part of their next steps in life. And sophomores and freshmen cannot wait to be upperclassmen to unlock privileges such as a more free study hall and leaving campus for lunch.

But why? Why do we want to get out of a moment so badly just to live it through again in nostalgia, instead of enjoying it when it is right in front of our eyes? Time and time again we miss when life was “easier.” In high school, we missed when we had to deal with our middle school homework, and in middle school, we missed having nearly no homework in elementary school. The truth is that although all of us have come a long way from crying at the dining room table while your dad helped you with second-grade math homework, it’s important to recognize that you will eventually progress beyond this moment, but now you should be living it through.

Another way we seem to not be living in the moment is through social media.

Many of us are stuck in a cycle of constant stimulation. Snapchat, Instagram, and most importantly, TikTok, have almost all of us in a chokehold. Whatever time it is, wherever we are, we always seem to find a way to look at our little world. 

But why? Whether you want to believe it or not, a lot of the time it is so we can escape from the present. “Summer 2024 is going to be the best!” one may say on TikTok, or you might even see, “I honestly just wanna skip summer and go to Halloween,” in the comment section.

 I can agree that you should be allowed to look forward to your favorite holiday, but wanting to fast forward the journey to get there is criminal. The anticipation of waiting is what makes the result so great. After all, during quarantine, we were all living in a very isolating time, and nearly all of us just wanted to get out. But now I can almost guarantee we have all seen a TikTok romanticizing the sleeping in, old TikTok, and easier classes, and that, is the biggest testament that we should live in the moment.

Additionally, one can look at concerts nowadays. If you go to any concert, everybody will be recording the concert the entire time. Of course, taking some videos and pictures should be the norm as it is a memory you don’t want to forget, but one can understand that there is a fine line between actually experiencing the moment versus looking at it through a piece of glass.

 Some artists such as Coldplay and Bruno Mars have already established  an anti-phone policy:you put your phone in a pouch at the beginning of the concert, and then the pouch gets unlocked at the end of the concert. While this may be extreme, the right intention is there.

So even if your life is – or isn’t – what you want right now, the moment that you are living in is unique in that it may not be accessible to relive years from now. And that’s okay. Oftentimes we compare our current moments to other people’s, and in wanting to progress to their moment, we lose our own.