Going to college for the first time this past year has made me realize a couple things. One of those things is the fact that I will probably never spend the same amount of time with my childhood friends and family ever again. This revelation hits me like a brick every time I visit them now, during the last few winter and spring breaks I have left in my life.

For 18 years I spent half of my 24 hours a day with my childhood friends, some of whom I have known since 2nd or 3rd grade. The other half of my day was spent with my parents and brother. Now that I am in college I will basically never see them except during holidays or the summer. And now even the summer is taken up by internships or summer classes. (Of course, don’t get me wrong - I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to study EECS at UC Berkeley and work with cool companies.)

The fact that I had so little time left with my old friends and family made me realize how important it is to proactively maintain the relationships you have with the people you care about. As a child, I didn’t really have to put in much effort to do so – I just lived with them or had a structured way to be with them on a daily basis (school). I didn’t go out of my way to be social because I was so focused on my academics, getting into college, and my future career. But now everyone is doing their own thing. Time must be set aside to stay in touch, lest things become awkward after a long time of no communication.

While there were obviously ups and downs, my childhood was definitely a very privileged and fortunate one. But one thing I wish I did more was live in the moment. Enjoy the time I had as a child. Because I’ll never get that experience back. In the meantime, I’ll just be listening to mxmtoon’s “victim of nostalgia” to compensate.

Note: Isn’t weird that my first 3 blog posts are all coincidentally on the 16th of a month? Weird…