April 16, 2021

In The Blink of An Eye

By Alexandra Cooperman

As the temperature rises, the sun shines brighter, and my heavy winter coat collects more and more dust in my closet, each day serves as a further reminder that the seasons are changing and my freshman year is winding down. I love lying outside and basking in the sun just as much as the next person, but this year more than usual; this change of seasons is also bringing me nostalgia for all of the craziness that was the beginning of my college experience. With less than a month of my freshman year left before me, I find myself wondering where in the world the time went.

If I type in my phone password, I can virtually relive every moment of this semester. I have a myriad of Snapchat memories, Instagram posts, and Tik Tok videos serving as a montage of all that I’ve experienced. Though throughout my life I’ve always looked fondly on my collection of memories, recently I’ve begun to yearn living in the moment. In an age so hyper-focused on social media, I often find myself prolonging what should be authentic moments, like the first bite of a meal or a friend blowing out birthday candles, in order to capture my life in hopes of virtual praise. Society has created a need to broadcast a life of perfection rather than truly experiencing all of life’s imperfections. Instead of making Tik Toks and posing for my Snapchat story, I could’ve, and probably should’ve, spent those minutes laughing with friends and taking in all that is my freshman year without my phone in hand.

When I arrived at school, just about every adult I encountered told me that my four years at Michigan would be both the best and fastest years of my life. Seeing as these past two semesters have gone by in the blink of an eye, I can’t help but wish for time to slow down or even rewind. I spent the majority of high school looking towards the future, each move calculated with the utmost precision. Every activity I did was motivated by a characteristic I wanted my resume to reflect, every class I took was to rack up another credit, and each piece of work was completed to boost my GPA, all with the goal of Michigan in mind. Now I’m here. Everything I’ve worked for is in front of my eyes, but I constantly choose to stick my phone camera in the way of once in a lifetime experiences.

For the first time in a very long time, I can’t tell you where I want to be four years from now. What I do know, however, is that I want to embrace the moment I’m in. I’d be lying if I said I was quitting social media, but the end of my freshman year is certainly a reminder that time waits for no one. I’d much rather stop to smell the roses than filter and photoshop the ones I ended a conversation to photograph. My next Instagram post can lay on the back burner – making real memories trumps curating artificial ones.

Edited By Abigail Peacock