Right Here, Right Now

How many nights have you laid awake, replaying every little detail of your day? Maybe you said something awkward in a conversation, didn’t do as well on a test as you had hoped, or spent too much time worrying about what tomorrow might bring. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been there over and over again.

All throughout high school, I was obsessed with the future. The next goal. The next step. The next big thing that would somehow prove my worth not only to others but to myself. I chased achievement after achievement, convinced that success was the only thing that mattered. But in doing so, I lost sight of something far more important, the present.

I can look back at the hundreds of photos in my camera roll, snapshots of football games, late-night study sessions, and road trips with my best friends, but if I’m being totally honest, I don’t really remember being there. I was physically present, but mentally? I was already focused on what the next big achievement would be. When graduation rolled around, when I finally walked across that stage to grab the diploma, I had worked so hard for, I thought I would finally feel successful. Instead, I still felt empty. I had accomplished so much, but I had lived so little.

Four months into my year as a state officer, I had a moment of realization that hit me like a truck. I looked back on every opportunity that I had gotten, walking through Washington, D.C., laughing around the firepit with my teammates, dancing at CDEs on the Green, but yet again, just like in high school, I couldn’t quite remember them. Not the way I should have. I had been so caught up in trying to be the perfect state officer, in making sure everything was just right, that I had let those moments slip away.

That’s when my dad gave me the reality check I needed. He told me to stop trying to be perfect. To stop obsessing over what others expected of me. To stop living for the future and start living in the now.

And that’s when everything changed. It hadn’t mattered what I had done for those first four months, but how I chose to spend the last eight.

I made a choice, a promise to myself, to be present. I started journaling about the members I met, the conversations that made me smile, the little details I never wanted to forget. I took pictures, not just to look back on later, but to remind myself that I was there, that I had finally taken the opportunity to live. And before every event, I whispered a mantra to myself:

“Right here, right now.”

At first, it was just a phrase. A reminder. But it quickly became a lesson I would carry forever.

 Now, with only a month left in this incredible journey, I can say with my whole heart: I am so glad I chose to live in the now. I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know what challenges or successes lie ahead. But I do know this, this moment, this experience, is all we ever truly have. The past is gone. The future is uncertain. But right now? Right now is yours to live. Whether you’re a first-year FFA member zipping up your blue jacket for the first time or a senior preparing to say goodbye, embrace it. Laugh too loud. Play all the music. Make memories that won’t just be pictures on a camera roll, but moments that stay in your heart forever.

Life is happening in real-time. Every breath, every interaction, every smile, is unfolding in the present. When we’re too busy looking ahead or behind, we miss the beauty of what’s right in front of us. So, take a deep breath, look around, and choose to live right here, right now.

 “Enjoy moments before they become memories.”