I wish I could know when I should live in the moment before it turns into a memory. As an adolescent, my days are divided between time in and out of school and days in and out of school. When I graduate, it will “upgrade” to time in and out of work and days in and out of work. I have to admit that the stress of the uncertainty of my future has been weighing on me heavily since I started high school. With seemingly neverending, upcoming exams, reports, and assignments being assigned, it seems near impossible to take time off, which only makes the present more worth living.

In Bronnie Ware’s book, The Top Five Regrets of The Dying, the dying were asked what their biggest regret in life was, and their responses have always stuck by me.

“I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”

“I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”

“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

“I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”

Finally, the statement that impacted me the most.

“I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

Perhaps it scares me whenever I catch myself relating to these regrets. It makes me doubt my priorities when I start seeing myself in these statements. As a result, I challenged myself to live more in the present. I do this by spending more time with my friends and family whenever I get the chance to. In the past, I would sometimes not even attend family dinners due to school work. Now, I know that there are more than enough assignments in the future to make up for it, but the time spent with my loved ones is the opportunity I am going to miss.

I make the most of my present with my friends by going out and experiencing new things with them. For example, this past summer we went to Disneyland, multiple museums, and record stores. I think my favorite thing about my friends is how we just click. We have similar styles, musical tastes, and interests, so it makes sense why we enjoy each other’s companies so much. For that, I am forever grateful.

When I allowed myself to be happy, I got to experience things I could only dream of when I was younger. I always imagined going on adventures and getting into mischief was a part of the teenage experience when I was a 6-year-old child watching the Disney channel. By surrounding myself with positive people and not stressing too much about temporary issues, it made me a more motivated student because I wasn’t as burnt out anymore.

A particular video that helped me adopt this mindset: