From a young age, my family always struggled with money. Yes, I was blessed to have food on the table with my necessities met – that was never an issue at all, it was more so the financial constraints that were a struggle. This instilled the importance of creating wealth in the form of memories.
Before my younger brother was born, my family and I would occasionally go on vacation to North Carolina or Virginia to visit the beach. Any time my family got a little bit of extra money, they would spend it on some activity. Whether it was going to Dave and Buster’s or to see “Monday Night Raw,” my parents always made sure that we had something fun to do. As I grow older, I think back to the most recent years when I started to make my own money and what I have spent it on.
I used to live in my own apartment during my sophomore year of college. Balancing a full-time job and school was probably the most depressing time of my life.. However, that time truly showed me my priorities with money. We live in a society where the value of money seems to determine the course of many lives, it is easy to fall into the trap that places wealth as being more important than experiences. While saving money is important for financial success and stability, I argue that creating lasting memories is a better investment.
My former roommate is someone who saves her money because one day she wants to go and do all these things after having children. I can respect that as I never was taught how to save money growing up. However, I don’t understand the thought process behind saving every dime for future activities or travels. I believe this was put to light after the death of my uncle. He spent so much time either saving his money to do things in the future or helping his family; he never really got the chance to live his own life before it was over.
This leads to other conversations I have recently had with my close friends about how different our lives will be after graduation in May. One of us could end up in Washington D.C., while the other may move to Columbus. Going from seeing each other every day to talking about classes, to potentially only seeing each other once in a blue moon. I appreciate the times spent sitting in the car with a milkshake at Swenson’s talking about what is going on in Student Government, or even Politics.
I was always told that being an adult would be tough but I was never prepared to go my separate ways with the people closest to me. This has put into perspective that my time here is not only limited, but spending every day with my friends is as well.
Ultimately my experiences throughout senior year so far have shown me that I want to make as many memories and friends as I can. I see the side wanting to save up all of this money to do things in the future, but I pose a question: why not enjoy it now?
Within this past year, I found myself saying ‘yes’ to anything someone has asked me to do. If you take a look at my Snapchat memories over the past 10 months, I have been to eight concerts, traveled to over six different states, picked up photography, started writing for The Carroll News, jumped in a few fountains and so much more. I wouldn’t have had these experiences if I had gone to work or stayed home instead to save my money.
My theory on this is that you will always be able to make your money back, but your time and memory on earth are spared. If we could look into the future and know how long each person would have left to live, my thoughts would be different. My uncle did not wake up the day of his passing and knew it would be his last day and that is one of the scariest things to me.
Whether you call this an excuse for my bad spending habits or an understanding of the other side of the argument, it has shown me to balance the good things in life. I will never be 18 years old going skydiving again or be 22 and going to Disney World with WJCU again. Our money is a promise but our future and time are not.
