It is the last month of the year and most of us can barely recall at least a couple of things that happened each month, some days just being so forgotten in our minds. The days go by very quickly and instantly, you’re left remembering what once was and how you’re losing all the days passing you by. But why? How does time feel like it’s rushing past us if every day gives us the same time? The answer: we are distracted by the future

According to psychologytoday.com, there are two basic reasons for this feeling. It’s mentioned that “as we grow older there is progressively less newness in our lives…we gradually use up the store of potential new experiences available to us. Second, as we get older, all the experiences we’ve already had become more familiar to us.” We lose our interest in what’s happening around us and lose it in our memories because we keep waiting for something grand in the future.

Instead of living in the present, we commonly reflect on our past. Even if it’s just a couple of months ago when you may have attended some event like a birthday party, at the moment, you realize how much you will miss this and what’s happening around you, trying to soak in the feelings and joy, just to look back now in the present only to be left with a depressed feeling. When you’re nostalgic, you end up stuck in this loop of remembering the past, and in the future, you end up missing that moment in time when all you could think about was the past. Your future self can see what you didn’t at the time.

You may get deep into your emotions and get to a state of sonder where you’re left with this experience of understanding how everyone else is also making memories, living in good ones right now, and living through life as fulfilled as they can.

I bet many seniors right now are just watching the days pass by and waiting for graduation day where everything they’re seeing right now will only be a memory. We never live in the moment and always focus on the future. When you get a new homework assignment, you think about when you’ll eventually have to do it just to end up procrastinating it while letting it linger in your head the whole time, when we worry about what’s going to happen the next day at school rather than acknowledging the fun you’re having with your friends in your classes right now.

So, since we have no way to stop time, take advantage of what you have now instead of worrying about the future.