I spend a lot of time worrying about the future.
I fear that I will never find a job, and if I do, I won’t love it as much as I had hoped.
I fear losing close relationships with family and friends.
I fear never finding the one person I’m supposed spend the rest of my life with.
But, in all honest, why do I worry about the future?
The future is not tangible. I will never be able to know if my fears will come to fruition or if they will dissolve. When I reach the future, I will have reached the present. And I guarantee I will have new fears that I mull over.
Why do I worry about the future?
I worried about the future that I am living in right now. My worries have yet to help me understand how to live in a pandemic. Or how to be a college student while the world seems to be falling apart.
Nobody anticipated this, and nobody can anticipate what will happen next.
Sure. I can theorize, I can worry. But I will still be exactly where I am right now. Typing this piece on my dorm room desk, as a bright fluorescent light contributes to a never-ending headache, “F2020” by Avenue Beat streaming through my AirPods.
Every day, I try to worry a little less. I try to be a little more present – noticing what the sky looks like or listening to the surrounding sounds.
I am not saying this is easy to do, but it feels necessary.
It feels good to notice what’s right in the world, right now. As cliché as it sounds, the future is not promised. So why do we worry about it today?
Here’s to noticing the present rather than worrying about the present. Let’s all just chill out.