When people go about their day, they tend to live in the moment and really embrace all that is happening around them, and the students at the BRCurrent agree: that living in the moment is more important than looking towards the future.

Senior Karissa Johnson agreed with the Current but added her own views.

“For me personally living in the moment helps me to enjoy life,” she said. “It helps my connections with people.” 

Unlike Johnson, some people find living in the moment to be very difficult. Spanish teacher Daniel Bussinger pondered what living in the moment really means.

“I am really terrible at living in the moment,” he said. “When I hear ‘living in the moment,’ I imagine a very trained mind only being, breathing, and noticing the surroundings using all the senses. That’s usually not me, especially the trained mind part.”

He continued to describe why he finds it difficult to live in the moment.

“I think of the future often, but that is not a bad thing.” He says, “My mind is more relaxed if I have a plan, so thinking of the future can be helpful for living in the moment.”

Senior Adam Merrill added his own insight of the balance between the two life styles.

“It’s very context dependent, and I think it’s possible to get the best of both worlds,” he said, “You need to focus on the future to get you through hard times and do work for a future goal, but if you do it too much, you end up missing out on the good things around you. Find a good balance.”

Other students think that planning for the future is one of the most important things, especially in planning what to do after high school.

Junior Amber Bell talked about why she finds planning for the future to be very important.

“I think it’s important because otherwise you’d just be stranded,” she said. “How will you deal with the problems in the future? You have to know at least a baseline of what you’re going to be doing.”

Bell continued on to talk about the reason she looks towards her future.

“I just feel like it’s something you should prepare for,” she said. “If you want your future to be interesting, then you should prepare for it. I know that I want to have an academic career. I know who I’m going to be rooming with because we’ve planned for the future.”

Mr. Bussinger elaborated upon his and Bell’s opinion with ways that someone might try living in the moment on a stressful day.

“A way to be in the moment using physical movement is to be in a yoga class,” he said. ”When all the participants are moving together and the instructor is keeping us in a rhythmic flow, I am living in the moment.” 

Living in the moment or looking toward the future, whatever it is someone believes in, we must remember that life is precious. Whether you’re struggling or know in the future there will be a struggle, living in the moment is important, but sometimes you can’t do one without the other.