One option is to just not think too much about it. That way you graduate college and start at a job. And then you rise through the ranks, succeeding along step-by-step, pressing the gas pedal on your life more and more. Then you succeed enough finally to press the gas pedal of your red convertible on a day off in middle-age, having earned the time to address the question you’ve delayed for so long. Except now it’s in the past tense: “What was it all for?”

I don’t want to be stuck in the past tense. And I don’t think anyone else does either.

That’s why it’s important to be aimless for a while now, in order to save time for working toward better aims later on. We may toss personal hygiene and other practical concerns out the wayside in college, but we can’t let our current drive overcome our need to deeply ponder our impractical, larger concerns as well, right now. This may come as a sacrifice to a summer of work or to a paper at school, but it has to be done.

So whatever the method—whether a conversation with the parents or mentors of old, or a long walk on the beach listening to Blink-182 (I miss home!), or even a Buzzfeed college major quiz—I encourage everyone to think about life and think about it soon. That way, no matter what you achieve, at least you know you wanted to achieve it.

I want to thank everyone for reading my columns this year. Cheers to you all! You’ve made the year the great fun that it’s been. After the summer, I hope to be back again—maybe with a change in my attribution. For now, this is Dash, signing off as always:

Dashiell F. Young-Saver ’16, a Crimson editorial writer, is an English concentrator in Winthrop House.