N:OW

I got a new tattoo on spring break in Puerto Rico about three months ago now. You may be wondering if it was one of those tattoos people usually get on spring break where they wake up one morning and just happen to have a new one. No! I was fully aware of what I was doing. It was a really rainy day, so one of my friends and I decided to go get a tattoo since we couldn’t go to the beach (makes sense right?). Anyways, we took an Uber like 40 minutes away from where we were staying and ended up in this really sketchy and poor area. The tattoo shop we went to buzzed us in at the front door just to give you an idea of what kind of area we were in. Luckily it wasn’t too hard to communicate because their English was pretty good. The only thing I wasn’t comfortable with about this whole situation was that we had to pay before we got the actual tattoo. But we did it anyway cause spring break right? Anyways, I got one on my left wrist that says “N:OW”, like a watch reading the time is “now” (you might think it’s kinda dumb, I know my dad does I think, but I like it). It looked really good as soon as it was done. I think it was the next day that I realized the colon in between the “N” and “O” was crooked. And that’s pretty much what this post is about.

The time is now, but you may not always think it’s the right time. It may not be perfect, just like my tattoo, but it’s almost always the right time. A lot of times I think we expect things to happen on our own terms and on our own agenda. We can all probably agree that Covid-19 didn’t happen at the right time (I don’t think there’s ever a good time for a global pandemic), but the argument can be made that it came at the right time. Yeah, the class of 2020 didn’t get a real graduation. Yeah, high school seniors didn’t get to have prom. A lot more things happened that were way worse than missing graduation or prom (not that those situations don’t suck). BUT they happened at the right time. This time in quarantine, and the world being pretty much completely shut down, has allowed for a lot of good things to happen too. For example, with all that time off from your “normal” life, you may have been able to pick up that old hobby of yours. You may have been able to read those books you always wanted to read. You may have taken a huge step back and just reflected on your life up until this point. Miss Rona may have come at a really bad and pivotal time in our lives, but there was a lot of good that came out of everything. Like for me, I started this blog. I had time to think and plan out what I want to do in life without having any distractions.

Kind of going off of the “Until Then…” post, there’s no better time than now to start doing what you want to do. When you think to yourself “I want to get in shape and feel healthier and look better”, go for a run! Go do something to help you get to your end goal. But this is what happens to a lot of people (including me). That laziness monster creeps up and taps you on the shoulder. You think “Ah well I’ll just go walk tomorrow” or “New Year’s day I’m gonna start running every day” and it’s still June. Laziness is one of the biggest traps out there. I’m all for bettering yourself and making change, but I think it’s funny how there’s a whole group of people out there that are waiting until 2021 to start over on their resolutions because they “messed up” already this year. To me, the mark of a new year is not some magical reset button. Pretty much the only thing that changes is you have to get another calendar to put on your refrigerator. Life still goes one and you’re still the same you. Why wait for just another day, when you can just do it today?

So go for that run today. Tell that person you have a crush on how you feel today. Make amends with that person you got in an argument with today. Start that book. Start that new Netflix show. Whatever it is, start it “N:OW”. I always loved what Master Oogway said in Kung Fu Panda. He said something like “Today is a gift. That is why they call it the present”. I think that’s so good. Because who doesn’t love getting a present? We get a new one every day we wake up. It’s just a matter of whether we see it as a gift and the right time, or not and see it as an inconvenience because it’s not the right time.

If you’ve read this far, I really appreciate it. I am in no way trying to make myself seem like I have all the answers in writing these, because that is NOT true. I’m still only 22 years old and have a lot of life left to live. It’s just thoughts I have and things I have known to be true in my own experiences. The thing I really love about doing these is not having to worry about a word count or meeting the requirements in a rubric. I make my own rubric and cut off the word count when I feel like it. So this is me cutting it off.