“Oh God, are there so many of them in our land! Students who can’t be happy until they’ve graduated, servicemen who can’t be happy until they are discharged, single folks who can’t be happy until they’ve found a mate, workers who can’t be happy until they’ve retired, adolescents who aren’t happy until they’re grown, ill people who aren’t happy until they’re well, failures who aren’t happy until they succeed, restless who can’t wait until they get out of town, and in most cases, vice versa, people waiting, waiting for the world to begin.”
This is precisely why I always feel the need to remind myself that living is for the NOW and not at some distant point in the future. Yes, it’s good to have goals and desires, things to look forward to in the future. But we can’t put our life on hold until these things have been acquired. Time is too precious to waste and life is too important to wait for.
And as I've learned through the years, the thing with this mindset is that once you've reached the desired destination you can often find yourself looking around at your life thinking, "So what? Now what?". Because no arbitrary date or milestone or achievement can instantaneously bring happiness and clarity within itself.
And so I tell myself this: make your plans, keep you dreams as the carrot on the stick. But live now. Love now. Find joy within yourself now. Whatever your situation, however near or far you may be from your destination. Because if you’re forever waiting for your life to begin, it will be over before you even know it.
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