I’ve spent most of my life lost in daydreams and memories, always drifting toward the past. Living in the present has never come easily to me. And while reminiscing may seem harmless, I’ve come to realize how much it can quietly hold you back.

For example, my best friend and I have been close for twenty years, yet we've only spent six of those years together in person. The rest of our friendship has unfolded through social media, letters, and video calls. So, what do we talk about? At first it was everything we could possibly divulge, but now as we grow it only focuses on one main point: the remember whens.

I really enjoy it from time to time, but it has become the entirety of our conversations. It’s as if our friendship is frozen in time, unable to evolve beyond the memories we revisit. I feel stuck yet grateful that we'll always have our memories to turn back to. Why is moving forward so tricky? What is it about the present and future that makes us freeze up and default to memory lane every time?

As I enter what I consider my golden year, I’ll try to trade nostalgia for presence, so that in 20 years, we’ll have new stories worth remembering.