7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice.

It can be one you've already written, one

that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Deciding to live in the moment

“If you are at peace you are living in the present.”

Throughout my entire life, I have received the same advice. People have always
said, “Go to an elite college, get a high paying fancy desk job, because it is the only way
you’ll ever have security and happiness.” Based on this recurring advice, I had begun to
plan for life after high school. I would spend hours stressing about how to make sure I
got accepted into the mechanical engineering program at Virginia Tech because I
thought this was what was expected of me. I assumed that the only path to true
happiness was through money, and “success.” Recently the pressure had become too
extreme to deal with. I was depressed about what I could have done better in the past
and anxious about a career that I knew would make me extremely unhappy. I was
missing the whole point of life.
I decided to finally quit living the life that everyone told me that I should live. The
pressure was off to make a sudden decision. I began to slow down and actually live and
“enjoy the ride.” My priority was turned to just making sure I did well in school so that
when the time came to make a decision I would be ready and having a life outside of my
academics. My grades improved, and I became happier as a result of my choice to take
the path that I wanted to.
The lesson that I have taken from these experiences is simple but extremely
meaningful one. They have taught me that it is hard to change the past but easy to learn
from it and that I shouldn’t over plan the future. Because in constantly spending all of
my time worrying I was missing the most important part of my life, The present.