As I am
sitting here, trying to think of what to write for my final blog post while
thinking about how I will be graduating from high school in a week, all I can
think about is how strange endings are. Some would say endings are beginnings.
One chapter ends, another chapter begins. The end of my high school is coming
soon, but the beginning of a new phase of my life will also be beginning. There
is sadness in ending the chapter- in leaving behind a place that has been a
home for the past four years, leaving behind teachers, friends, experiences,
and memories. There is also excitement
to turn the page to the next chapter, to move forward into the future and to go
to college, take new classes, meet new people, and live in a new place. There
is happiness, relief, fear, nerves and many other emotions depending how one
looks at the situation. Endings are confusing times of mixed emotion. Endings
are bittersweet.
But what really stumps me about endings
is how it isn’t until the end of something that we realize how truly great it
is. This is something I have experienced countless times. Returning from
vacations, returning from summer camps, being in a show, playing on a sports
team, and graduating high school. You don’t realize how much you cherish
something until you have to deal with losing it.
Next week, I
will be graduating from high school. Throughout this year, I’ve often heard
complaints about how people are ready to leave, to get away and go to college.
I know I am a victim of this too as I have many times been excited to get away
from the stress of high school. But now all of sudden, when we only have a week
left of school, it seems like people are finally realizing how truly great our
high school and how blessed we are to go to the school that we do with the
teachers and students that we know. With two days of school left, people are
suddenly thinking “oh crap I’m actually miss this school”. This isn’t something
new or specific to any age group; this is something I have experience all my
life when in turning the pages in between chapters.
But why do
we do this all the time? You would think after awhile we would learn to cherish
what we have while we have it, but no. We do the same thing over and over
again. We don’t realize or understand what we have until suddenly we don’t have
it anymore. Maybe this is just human nature. Maybe we can’t change this action
or pattern. And maybe, that’s not such a bad thing.
People always say we should “live
each day like it’s your last”. While there isn’t necessarily anything wrong
with that philosophy, why do we need to be thinking about losing what we have
in order to enjoy it? Just enjoy what you have, realize that it may not always
have it, but don’t dwell on the loss of it in order to appreciate it. In some
ways it doesn’t matter that we do this. Living happily in the moment is better
than thinking about what you may or may not have tomorrow. Rather than living
each day like it’s your last, live each day simply as today. Live each day in
the moment and don’t worry what tomorrow may or may not bring. Endings may be
good, bad, happy, sad depending how you choose to look at it. But when you
think about it, endings make up a small portion of our lifetime. Endings are
simply page turns in between the chapters of our book. What really matters is
the content, the pages, the chapters, and that’s what we should be thinking
about each day, not what will be gone at the end of those chapters.
