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The Cost of Thinking About the Future

 I always wanted to write this blog post, but I kept delaying it. It would have made more sense if I published this blog post during the second semester of senior year, but I will still write it now. 

After receiving my college acceptance in December, a substantial amount of my daydreams consisted of imagining my life as a college student and the various exciting things my college offered from its awesome location to the special classes I wanted to take. After a few months of exhibiting this behavior, I started wondering about the consequences of constantly thinking about the future. What startled me was considering the fact that thinking about the future prevents me from being present in the moment. By occupying my mind in another place, I neglected some important things that I tend to take for granted like the quiet surroundings and the pleasant weather. Looking back, I believe that the main reason I thought so much about college was that life during the second semester of senior year was dull. Besides online school and extracurriculars, there weren't many interesting things that happened during that time. I romanticized my first semester of college because it offered some mental escape from the bleak situation that I lived in. It was a way to entertain my brain when I had little to no social life and provide some hope that the future would get better after the pandemic came to an end. 

Ever since the realization I had about the negative effects of thinking about the future, I am more conscious of my tendencies to think about the future, specifically college life. I have to admit that it is pretty difficult for me to focus on the present moment when my current life feels flat. Whenever I notice that my train of thought is about the ideal college life, I remind myself to appreciate the temporary things I have before I leave like the daily bike strolls and the comforts of having my own room. I should savor each morsel of home-cooked food I eat now and cherish each moment I have with my high school friends. I feel like I tend to repeat myself on the blogs, but I will say this again: it is so easy to focus on the potentially good things of the future while ignoring the good things we have now. 


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