Anyway, the point of that little bit is this. Society has tried to tell us that we should live for the moment, that the past and the future do not matter because the past is gone and the future is not promised. However, I disagree. I think the present is important, don't get me wrong. Yesterday, just sunbathing from the front of my grandfather's boat with one of my best friends sitting at my side, I was content. I wished the moment didn't have to go, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. However, does that mean that today I should concentrate solely on enjoying today instead of looking back and remembering the fun I had yesterday or gladly hoping that in a few weeks the scene will repeat itself? Don't get me wrong. I don't think we should become so engrossed in our pasts or our futures that we take for granted the moment at hand, but I think sometimes that idea of living for the moment can bring us down. After all, there are going to be moments in our lives that bring us great pain. We lose a friendship, a relationship ends, we make a mistake. But we can't live totally in those moments, because if we do we won't survive. The only thing that gets us through those hard times are the memories of before and the hopes of what will happen later. How things have been and how things will be are just as important as how things are now, because it is the combination of the three that makes us the person we are. We are the eclectic combination of all those moments, past, present, and future. Our past shapes us into who we are now, and our dreams guide us toward whom we want to become.

~June 5, 2003