My Senior Quote by Falyn

My Senior Quote by Falyn - November 2018 Scholarship Essay

Even though my school doesn't do the senior quote tradition, I've thought about what mine would be if I had one. If I got to pick a senior quote it would be, "Plan for the future, but live for the now". I think it is a short and sweet way to explain how I try to live my life. Ever since middle school all we hear as students is to think about the future. Our teachers and parents tell us how important college is, to keep our grades up, and to always follow the rules. Then when we start our freshman year of high school our they start to drill these ideas into us even more. We start to look at colleges and start thinking about what we want to do with our lives. Then, we get told in our junior year we need to take the SAT and ACT as seriously as possible because this one test can change our future. Finally, we hit senior year, then all we hear from people is "Where do you want to go after high school?", "What college are you going to?", "What career are you working towards?" It's stressful when you're 17 years-old and are being told that all your decisions you make now will impact your future, and that you need to decide what you want to do with your life.

While I may sound like I'm complaining about every adult in my life telling me I need to figure my life out and plan for my future, I'm not complaining. I understand that it's important and I need to have a post-high school plan for myself, but I also learned at a young age that we aren't guaranteed tomorrow. When I was 10 years-old, my dad passed away due to cancer. I know I'm not the only child to lose a parent to this unfortunate disease, but my dad taught me a valuable lesson from it. He never let cancer tell him how to live his life, he still thrived and I will always remember him as a man who lived every single day like it was his last because he truly knew that he might not wake up the next morning. That is how I want to live my life, I want to go to bed every night with no regrets. Since I know that no person is guaranteed tomorrow.

Going back to my quote, "Plan for the future, but live for the now", I think this quote tells how I live my life. While I'm preparing for next year and embracing all the changes that are about to happen to me, I'm also not letting myself forget that I need to live for the moment and seize every opportunity that comes my way. I'd love to give that advice to not only my high schools' under class-men, but give that advice to adults too. I think people get too wrapped up in monetary things and their future, and they forget to live for today and to just be happy and enjoy their lives.