Notes on savoring the moment
“To look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.”
When I reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn last year—one of my favorite books, and one that I could read several more times over—that quote stuck with me.
I’m constantly blown away at the opportunities that I’ve been given (or should I say, earned).
I was raised with the maxim that good things come to those who work hard, but that there can be too much of a good thing: good old German work ethic. I was raised to study hard, save money, be frugal—aka that you pack an knife and buy an apple and slice your own apples for a snack, not that you splash out on room service.
I’m currently traveling in South Africa, a country that I’ve wanted to visit for a very long time. And I’m getting to do it in a style that I never would have expected or even dreamed of—being greeted at five-star hotels with champagne or staying in the preferred safari villa of Oprah—all because I take photos on my phone.
The day I accepted this trip—and even as I write this now—I cried, out of pure joy and a smattering of disbelief that this is my life and this inkling of how do I possibly deserve this. Because in many ways, I still feel like this sort of luxury is an anomaly—I’m 27 years old. I don’t have a trust fund. Most of my days consist of a long subway commute and long day in the office and another long commute home, with my greatest indulgence being a $4 latte once a week. This is the exception, not the rule.
So here’s what I try to remember: none of this is promised. It’s impossible to say when the opportunities will stop coming, or if a day will come when I’ll open up my computer or the Instagram app and just think: nope.
And because of that, I am so insanely grateful for every experience as it happens. I’m writing this mostly because I want to keep myself in check, because I want to be very clear that I do not take this for granted.
To some extent, I’m invited on these trips to enjoy myself—but more importantly, to make it look via social media that I’m enjoying myself. And so I do—I savor the bubbles before swallowing, and I close my eyes as the sunshine warms my face, and I stare out the window as we drive, trying not to miss a thing.
But more than anything, I say thank you in a million different ways to the million different people who are making this dream possible.
That said: thank you for reading, for following, for liking and commenting and living vicariously through me—because that is the real reason this dream is possible.
