Everyone grows up. In some way, everyone will progress from their high school selves. People may enter college, get a job, and grow old and gray. But some people might want to hold on to their youth. However, growing up is still inevitable. No one can conquer time, and it moves on as we age.

  Any adult will emphasize enjoying the years of school with a wistful, sometimes regretful look on their faces. Some people look the happiest talking about their past school lives, and some people seem like they have a lot of unfinished business at school, regretting they couldn’t have made better decisions.

  School is probably where the most memories will be made. People normally spend at least 12 years in school, not counting college, graduate school or any additional years of education. While for many students, school just seems like somewhere to go five days a week to study, school is much more valuable than that. Not necessarily because of the education content, but because school is a place of memories, school can be very important. As hard as school is and  as much as students are struggling, without school, our weeks would be long and empty.

  The future: This is why we study, what we are working towards. Some of us have glittering, Ivy League-bound futures ahead of us, and some of us have no idea what to do later. Some have their entire lives planned out, and some of us don’t even know what to major in or what field to work in. But both scenarios are okay. It’s fine to worry about the future, no matter what it will bring. However, many people seem to be forgetting about the present because they are so worried about what will happen later.

  When most people look back on their lives, they remember friendships and relationships they thought would last forever, but didn’t. They remember their personalities changing over the years, thinking they could change the world and being worry-free. Then, all of a sudden, they don’t. They’re swept away in a promise of a shining, brilliant future and leave behind the things that count. They leave behind the relationships, the memories, the smiles and laughter.

  The scariest sentence someone can say is, “I will never forget you.” That fact is, people will not remember every relationship they had in every phase of their life. These relationships were once treasured through a time of bonding and friendship. They might not have ended well or simply just swept under the rug without a second thought, but at one point, every memory that relationship brought was precious.

    As important as the future is, it’s also important to live in the now. Live enjoying every small moment and treasuring every memory. As time takes its toll on once-special relationships and memories, it’s important to treasure and remember as much as people can. Thinking about the future, people will only look back later and regret not making more memories.

  These moments are never coming back. Enjoy the now, and worry about the future when it gets here.