When I’m not doing school or getting ready for college, I usually spend my free time writing. Whether it be about my day, a story I came up with, a poem, or anything in between all of those options, writing brings me a sense of inner peace that I can’t say a lot of other activities do. A few days ago, I was scrolling through my phone looking for a journal prompt to respond to. I came across a list that listed 30 different prompts to choose from, with the options ranging anywhere from “What does your dream life look like?” to “What are you most grateful for in your life?” While I’ll eventually end up responding to every prompt on the list someday soon, one prompt that was listed stood out to me. The prompt was titled “Where do you see yourself in 6 months? A year? 5 years? 10 years?”, and it struck me in a way that none of the other prompts did. I thought to myself, “Where do I see myself 6 months from now?” Of course I know where I would like to be six months from now, but what will change between this very moment and the exact moment I experience six months from now? I feel that as students, me and my fellow peers, especially fellow seniors, often find ourselves living so far ahead in the future that we often forget that we have a present that we should be experiencing. In six months from now, I will be living in a different city, sleeping in a different room, and experiencing different events and classes that I am not familiar with. When your life is set to change in ways that you can’t fully comprehend in the moment, it can be hard to prepare yourself for the future. But if you stop and think about where you are right now, you will realize that it’s easier to get to the future if you take the time to understand your present self. I don’t know the person I will be six months from now, but I do know the person that I am right here at this moment. I think as a society, we have to remind ourselves that while our futures are important, it is important to remember that we are deserving of peace and preservation for our present selves also.
Cassidy Craven
Online Editor-in-Chief
the spark 