🌳 Someday, these will be the good old days
I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.
- The Office
It feels like I started college only about a year ago, but it's two and a half years in, and I'm already looking at my last few months as an undergrad.
It's easy to get overwhelmed by the fact that life is finite and time only moves in one direction. So if you're trying to not waste your life, how on earth do you make the most of it? How do you make memories now that you'll treasure later?
Over the past few days, I've had a series of conversations with my good friend Sam on this very topic. UCSB's Data Science Club has become a home to both us and many of our other officers. So after many meetings, events, adventures, and much joy, it's hard not to number the weeks until graduation. But one piece of Sam's advice stuck with me: You don't treasure moments by how long they last—you treasure them by how deeply you lived them. But how do you tell if you're actually doing that? In her mind, it's easy to fall out of the moment when you focus too much on the clock. In other words, you live deeply when you stop trying too hard to live deeply.
Here are some notes to myself for the next few months: Go on as many adventures as possible, have more late-night conversations, and spend time with the people that fill you with energy. Take plenty of photos. Allow yourself to get swept in the moment. Tell your closest friends how much they matter to you, and sacrifice some sleep or a few points on an assignment for some time with them. Trust me, you won't get it as easily ever again. But it's not like everything is over after these next few months—after all, you'll want to travel and visit them.
Enjoy it while it lasts, but don't make these next few months feel like a countdown. You already know that these are the good old days. Now stop thinking about the time.
