Carpe Diem by Bianca

Carpe Diem by Bianca - April 2021 Scholarship Essay

The world has shut down. It’s March 2020, and your whole life has been put on pause. Everyone’s life has come to a halt. School has been canceled as well as jobs. People now have to work from home or have completely lost their jobs. There’s no more seeing friends or family members. You realize that life is full of surprises and sometimes they aren’t good ones. If I could have given myself advice five years ago, it would be to make more memories and make them last.
Make more memories. Reflecting on life during quarantine made me have the realization that I took life for granted. I focused so much on school and rarely made time to do anything for myself, including spending time with my family. And when I did have time to spend with my family, I often wouldn’t jump up at the opportunity to go because I was so worn out. As family time no longer was an option during quarantine, I vowed to try and spend more time with my family when it was deemed safe to do so. During the summer, we would go see my family outside with masks on and just talk about life. Because none of us were working at a physical location we decided to quarantine and get together with family for my grandfather’s birthday in September. I was so happy we decided to make more memories because that was the last time I would see my grandfather. He contracted covid around Thanksgiving and soon was admitted to the hospital. He went from being on a ventilator to being put on the ECMO machine (a last resort life support option for Covid patients). No one was allowed to see him during the last few months of his life. In February, he ended up passing away as the ECMO machine was not working for him. With all this in mind, I would strongly encourage my younger self to make more memories.
Make the memories last. Putting in the effort to make memories is one idea, while making them last is an entirely different subject. What good is a memory if you aren’t reveling in it. Being present in the moment is essential to making moments last. Taking pictures and videos can also be beautiful ways to capture those moments in real time. They are great tools to use in order to remember those periods of time. Get off of your phone and off of social media. Unless taking a picture, being on the phone is useless and distracts you from what is truly important.
Expect the unexpected. That is the biggest take away I have from 2020. Make more memories, and make them last. Five years ago, this is the best advice I could have given myself. Get together with the people that mean the most to you and create happiness. Go out of your way to create these memories and when you do, don’t forget to truly enjoy every second of it.