Now and Later

You've just graduated from college. What's next? Do you get a job? Go to graduate school? Or do you devote a little more time toward "finding yourself" because you're still not sure what you want to do with your life?

I believe that I have finally realized that life is one continuous transition period...which can be pretty intimidating. The idea that you'll never be entirely comfortable with everything may seem cynical and like a hopeless, 'glass-half-empty' way to look at things, but it can also be treated as a challenge. If we accept that life will be filled with struggles and tests of our character, then we can be better prepared to recognize those struggles and tests and learn to see them as periods of time - granted, difficult periods - that will serve as a testament to who we are rather than seeing them as scary bludgeonings of an already fragile way of life.

If we greet every day with boldness rather than a paranoid fear of the future, then we have already won half of the battle. We can exercise only so much command over our lives; at some point, we are at the mercy of chance (see Leave it all to Chance), which can also be a scary prospect. Yet, if we embrace the unknown and carry with us a hope that is not based on an ephemeral comfort, we are no longer victims of circumstance, but rather masters of our fates (see Noteworthies: Invictus).

Now, you can't tell me that's not empowering.

The future can be frightening, and it's often painted as a daunting, murky sea of possibilities, but something that I believe is equally as important is the present. We've been so trained to focus on the "later" that the difficulties of the "now" are routinely overlooked. Yes, it's obvious that what we do now ultimately affects our prospects for later, but it can be so easily forgotten by a 'now-focused' mind. And it's strange, but sometimes a 'later-focused' mind can seamlessly, and yet unknowingly, become 'now-focused'.

But that doesn't make sense, does it?

Let's try to break it down. Say you're in school and you know that getting good grades will help you to accomplish your future goals (i.e. career). Ultimately, you're preparing for later, but it's effortless to get caught up in the "now" of your next assignment and that test this week. It's not bad to strive for academic excellence, but I believe that it must be tempered with a focus on other things as well. Often, it's automatic for a person to say that career is superseded by things like family and loved ones. (I mean, what would people think if you didn't say that?) And while this statement is true for many people, it all depends on how your life is prioritized. To the 'later-thinker'-converted-'now-thinkers', it can be difficult to remember that an extreme focus on one aspect of life can injure other valued areas. Sometimes good intentions are the very things that undermine what we intended in the first place.

So now what?

While there is no way to simultaneously focus on both the present and the future, to be aware that both demand attention is an important realization. Balancing life can be hard, especially when you have to alternate between preparing for your "later" and accomplishing things in your "now", but with  persistence, flexibility, and conviction, life won't get the best of you: 

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens." -Khalil Gibran

Noteworthies: Invictus

If you're reading this and you have not seen the movie Invictus, then you should take this moment to make your to-do list just a little bit longer. It's definitely worth the time.

The title, however, is based on William Ernest Henley's "Invictus" - a fiercely empowering piece. In the film, it heals and restores a man's spirit so that he might set into motion a plan that would not only rekindle a sense of patriotism but would also mend the rifts between a people, wrought by their own doubled-edged animosity.

The power of words is astounding. Too often, they callously destroy in a moment's fury. But sometimes, on those rare occasions, they come together in such a beautifully inspiring way that it would be doing the world a disservice not to share.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.