schopen-hopen

“The present alone is true and actual; it is the only time which possesses full reality, and our existence lies in it exclusively. Therefore we should always be glad of it, and give it the welcome it deserves, and enjoy every hour that is bearable by its freedom from pain and annoyance with a full consciousness of its value” (92).

For all the pessimism he displays other writings, this bit of advice from Schopenhauer is quite idealistic and hopeful.  His insistence on proper, well-balanced enjoyment of the present definitely rings true with me, especially in one of my personal maxims: “Be where you are.”

                
I spent my third year of undergraduate studies abroad, studying abroad for two semesters in two different locations, sandwiched by two summers abroad.  After the first summer of working in Korea, I spent my fall semester in Seoul, after which I was in Lyon, France for the spring semester.  The summer after this year was spent in Korea as well.  This whole period of time involved a lot of local traveling, too, around East Asia and Europe respectively.  It was during this time that I truly got to live out the value of this phrase that I’d always believed in, as a self-proclaimed “present-lover.”  One piece of advice that people gave me about studying abroad was to avoid “#fomo” – the fear of missing out.  Being abroad means precisely that – you are abroad! – and therefore, not at home.  Inevitably, you “miss out” on people’s lives back home, back at school, back on your side of the globe.  Friends experience things without you, traditions trudge on without you, relationships grow on without you.  And studying abroad, of course, is an experience that opens your eyes to alternate worlds going on all around you all the time.  There’s no way to have all the experiences.  You are limited in a vast, seemingly unlimited world, and all you can fully do is “Be where you are.”

The same is true of those alternative worlds in time.  As with alternative places, those alternative realities of the past and the future can’t ever compete with the reality of the present – “The present alone is true and actual… Therefore we should always be glad of it…with a full consciousness of its value.” Be where you are, when you are.