Living in the Interim

In her interim appreciation speech, Ohio State University student Marissa Blankenship suggests that we "live in the interim."

Being a solution-oriented thinker and avid planner, Blankenship was always looking forward. However, her life was thrown out of focus when she discovered that she had a tumor that was considered to be consistently, but not necessarily completely, benign. So what do you do when you're "assumed to be fine" or "maybe okay?" Blankenship was forced to wait, without plan or solution, in the interim.

Interim is defined as "a period between events;" a time that is often glossed over under the assumption that there is no movement occurring within it. Indeed, we are prone to reflecting upon our lives as a series of accomplishments, without considering the time spent in between them. In the humbling afterglow of her experience, Blankenship realized that planning is merely a desperate attempt to figure out the future, as well as an arrogant assumption that we have control over time. Once we accept that we leave the past with no knowledge of the future, all there is left is the present. Though this notion may be intimidating, Blankenship believes that this ambiguity is what unites us and makes us human. Most importantly, it serves as a space in which we are able to make sense of our emotions and truly who we are.