Spring Break. Prom. College. These seem to be the topic of all conversations lately. The countdown to a vacation with your friends, online shopping for prom dresses, and discussion about college roommates have been a dominating topic in the senior class. We are wishing our time away by constantly talking about the future instead of being present in the now.

I understand that talking about the future is important. I mean, obviously we have to decide where we’re going to college and it’s perfectly okay to be excited for prom and spring break. But in the famous words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” Ferris is right. We spend so much time talking about the future that we are missing out on what is right in front of us.

It’s the occasional conversation in the hallways with a teacher. It’s sitting in a free period with all of your friends, laughing and enjoying company and time with each other. It’s all of your siblings being home at once, picking on each other, but also always having each other’s backs. It’s those STA vs Sion games where you come home covered in face paint and your voice is gone. It’s the advisory parties filled with way too much food and games that bring you closer to your advisees. It’s all of the sports or play practices or extra curriculars after school that you dread going to, but you go anyway because you love it. It’s the classic “it’s gone” emails and breading advisories that makes STA so unique, and adds a little bit of laughter and silliness to your day. It’s the days when Bistro serves tomato soup and grilled cheese that I don’t know about you guys, but I’m for sure going to miss. (I hear college food sucks, but that’s a different story.) It’s all of the little things that happen in our everyday lives that we often overlook and take for granted that make our experience at STA so great, and what makes life worth living.

So I challenge you to put your phones down, stop obsessing over the future, and just live in the moment. Be with your family and the friends you have now, and stop wishing your life away. If we don’t step back to appreciate and savor what we have in these short months left together, we might be regretful of wasting our time away. Like Trace Adkins sang, “You’re gonna miss this. You’re gonna want this back. You’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast.”