I am a graduating senior and I am living in the present. Not only am I not living in the past, but I have also chosen not to live in the future. Therefore I am not worried about what will happen after I graduate. Right now I am comfortable, I have a bed to sleep in and food to eat. After I graduate I may have neither of these, but I am not concerned because of my focus on the present.
Today I have shelter. After I graduate I may not have a job and thus, no way to provide shelter for myself. Possibly I will live in a large ditch with irritated cockroaches and one or two snakes, but, to reiterate, that does not bother me at all because I am so committed to the present.
As of now I work in the Geo-sciences library. I work three and one-half hours a week, sitting at a desk, and make a very modest amount of money. This money is used to buy 12-packs of cola and occasional tickets for motion pictures. When I graduate this will surely not provide me with the resources to live and thrive on. I have no idea what I will do to provide proper sustenance for survival. There is a high probability that I will live on berries in some cold forest without human contact, and there is a good chance I will spend my cognizant hours considering what berries will cause instant asphyxiation and which berries will not. How-ever, such bleakness bothers me not, for at present I am enjoying 12-packs of Dr. Pepper from the Wawa.
Right now I am wondering whether I will go to dinner at 6 or 6:30. After I graduate I will probably wonder whether I should hitchhike to Kansas or not, where I might be able to nibble on corn stalks without much embarrassment. But I'm not living in the future, so it doesn't concern me.
Hmmm, I really don't mind if it rains now or not. That solid roof and dry bed sure are inviting either way. Post-June there is an almost certainty that I will do at least one daily rain-dance to ward off any precipitation. And if I thought about the very real possibility that I will be attempting to set grotesque and perilous Guinness Book world records in order to make ends meet and grab a sliver of raw chicken breast, then I would probably start planning for the future. But I do not think about that kind of stuff because of my love affair with the present day.
I cannot sympathize with Little Orphan Annie when she sings that song "Tomorrow." If I were to think about tomorrow I would be obsessing about the over 80% chance that I will become a fisherman on a Bering Sea boat to get a warm meal. I would constantly be forced to face an almost certain pilgrimage to Amish country in Pennsylvania for the purpose of "guilting" the Amish into letting me sleep in their barns and eating their excess wheat-meal. But I am not Little Orphan Annie. Like Katie Couric of the "Today Show," I will continue concentrating my sluggish energy on the trials faced by the moment. Carpe Diem.
So when you see me, a year from now, selling fake pecans on the corner of Witherspoon street in order to raise the funds to begin a business based around the idea that watermelons look like giant limes, you will remember me as that kid who lived for today. And you will tip your cap to me, and, if you are extra kind, you will tip me. Eric Bland is an English major from Richmond, Va. He can be reached at ebbland@princeton.edu.
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