It was just the other day when I was talking to my brothers about flying out of state for the weekend when one of them responded, “I’m an adult. I don’t have time for stuff like that.”

My optimism wasn’t yet shaken and I responded with a cheerful, “But life is all about picking up and going places!”

My brother shook his head and said plainly, “Wait ‘til you get out of college.”

I was taken aback by the response. I tried to comfort myself with hushed thoughts that I would surely always have time to live the adventurous life that I had envisioned and that my brother was wrong, but something dawned on me: What if he was right?

As a kid, I always imagined the amazing things that I would do when I “grew up.” There were images of cross-country road trips, winter nights in a log cabin with 20 friends, a spontaneous flight to Vegas for the weekend, riding elephants in Thailand or backpacking Europe for a month. These things that you don’t quite have the freedom to do when you’re younger but apparently won’t quite have the time to do when you’re older.

The question then becomes: When do we get to do the things we want to do? Maybe you just can’t. Maybe life doesn’t work that way.

I wouldn’t disagree with that too much. Modern life is set up in a way that constantly keeps us busy. The majority of the first 18 years of our lives is almost invariably spent in an education system that leaves us with two days per week for our own. Summer and winter breaks are a treasure that are too often wasted: “There’s always next year!”

Then, many of us go on to spend the next four years of our lives pursuing higher education, which is often said to be the time to do everything. Four measly years to have a lifetime of adventures. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that even college leaves a student as busy as a bee. Adventures are often sacrifices of grades or valuable work experience. All of this to prepare for an eventual career. A career: In other words, a lifetime of work. A lifetime of work that is followed by eventual retirement, when you may be able to again afford yourself some time for adventures if you’re not too tired.

If you are anything like me, the thought of all of this might make you very scared, concerned or frustrated. I think I began to realize all of this when I was in high school, dedicating all of my time and energy to earning stellar grades and building a strong resume. Sure, I was working toward long-term happiness. The difference between long-term happiness and short-term happiness was something that I felt I understood. Setting yourself up for long-term happiness is important, but should that mean we have to sacrifice short-term happiness?

Many things can be considered. When does long-term happiness finally arrive? It seems as though it may just be a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow that is chased eternally but never reached. What if you die tomorrow?

These questions are ones that people often don’t want to face. There are things that we just accept, things that are a product of the life that society has set before us. How to work around it is something that I have not yet figured out.

I once read an article about a woman who quit her six-figure job in New York to go work as an ice cream scooper on a remote tropical island. Her life became exactly what she wanted: simple, beautiful, mobile. Her new life provided herself the luxury and freedom to do whatever it was she pleased to do on any given day without much of a second thought.

I don’t know if I’m ready to renounce society to that level, but maybe some of you are. I spend much of my time trying to think of ways to balance living a life apt to modern societal expectations with one that will simply make me feel good at the end of every day — not 10 years from now, but today. Preparing me, and possibly my eventual children, for long-term happiness, but affording myself the privilege of short-term happiness. I think it starts by saying now is as good a time as any to do what you want. Prioritizing your own happiness is the paramount goal, for, without happiness, what is there?

At times it is difficult, but this is something to remind yourself of every day. Your life isn’t necessarily about a 4.0 GPA, it’s not about landing a job at Google, it’s not about a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It’s about the smile on your face as you run there, fall down, lay in a pile of grass or forget what you were even chasing in the first place.

Elena Stacy writes a weekly column on finding confidence and managing stress on the way to adulthood.