“One day, you’re 17 and you’re planning for someday. And then quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.” – John Green

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I talk to my mom on the phone almost every day. We talk about how our day went, funny stories about her students, what’s for dinner at our houses, something that my beagle Finn did that day and when the next season of “Virgin River” is supposed to come out because we were left on a cliffhanger.

I talk to my dad every weekend and sometimes during the week when our schedules magically line up around his two jobs. We laugh about the funny and goofy things he has to say and talk about what his plans are with mom for that weekend, which football teams are playing (even though I don’t watch sports) that Sunday and how proud he is of me.

I wouldn’t want it any other way.

From a young age, we were told endless cliché sayings about how to cherish the present and that life is short, despite us wanting it to last forever. It took me going to college, moving back home for the summer, and then again after graduation, before marrying my husband and having to move five-plus hours away, to truly cherish the time — no matter how short or long — I get to spend with my family.

I’ve been going through old photos lately, just wishing that I could go back in time when a photo was taken.

I wish I could go back to the white farmhouse in the middle of nowhere in Burton, Texas, and find my Aunt Nell sitting in her recliner or cooking up something in the kitchen. I wish I could taste those triangle cookies — a decadent dessert that we can’t find the recipe for — again or her infamous broccoli cheddar casserole. I wish I still opened up the mailbox with excitement to find handwritten cards from her for nearly every holiday, including Halloween. I just wish I had one more day with her.

I wish I could go back to when I was in high school and take a step on the stage again when it was a concert or musical season. I wish I could walk up the stairs to the perfectly named “heavens” backstage, where we would keep years and years worth of costumes for every play and musical that students performed in at the school. If you had a costume in mind, you could probably find it there.

I wish I could go back to the weekends where my family would cram into one car — I was in the middle back seat in between my two brothers — and we would drive to San Antonio to walk along the riverwalk and eat at Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia. We would crack jokes, tell stories and consistently try to make my dad laugh. We still get together, but with my oldest brother living in Florida, it’s not as often as it used to be.

I wish I could go back to living in a town that was only an hour or two away from my friends and family, but I know that one day, it will happen again. Until then, I will continue to enjoy the moments that I share with them for the time that I have: a few minutes, an hour, several hours, a day or a week.

When we are kids, we just want to grow up, but then we grow up, we just want to be kids again.

I agree with John Green that, “One day, you’re 17 and you’re planning for someday. And then quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.”

You’re a junior in high school, or younger, one day planning for college. And then the next thing you know, you are looking out into the audience at your high school graduation, waving at your parents. Then, you are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic when you are supposed to be walking the stage at your college graduation ceremony, so you just “graduate” at home. You then marry your high school sweetheart and your family is helping you pack up the U-Haul to move into your very first home.

You are living day by day and the next thing you know, what you were planning for is suddenly here.

This is your life, so make the most of it. Pick up the phone when your mom calls, hug your loved ones tight, say “I love you” to the person you have been waiting to tell and make plans with friends you haven’t seen in months. Don’t take it all for granted.

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Navarro is the editor of the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch. She can be reached at megan@haysfreepress.com.