Letters

Ready, Set Report: Time goes faster when you’re an adult

May 31, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

Time is never on our side. Ever heard that expression? It certainly resonates with just about everyone at some point in his or her life. Time really is a fragile thing, one we shouldn’t waste.

You always hear that you should spend every day like it’s your last, take advantage of every moment given, and though you should, it’s very difficult. Today’s world is constant go-go-go, hectic, ever-shifting work schedules, family and social lives, and with this entire happening at once, time zips by in an instant.

I don’t think you necessarily have to live your days like it’s the end, but here and there, do that special something you’ve never had time to set aside for.

As I’ve grown up, I’ve realized time goes by faster when you’re an adult. When you are a kid, time seems to go at your pace. And it makes sense, you don’t have anything to really be responsible for or worry about, you just get up and enjoy the day, you don’t think of life and its challenges, the parents do that.

Now you’re older and deal with those responsibilities, every day seems to be over in a flash.

Now and then, when I have down time, I usually think back on the past, and everything that happened, and wonder, “Did that really happen during that time?” It seems unfathomable so much has happened in what seems so little time.

I look back on my childhood and remember many moments, but certain ones that were a long time ago do feel like that. My first day of school seems like a blur, but my elementary school graduation clearly comes into my mind.

I can recall my first day of high school, and thinking, “This is going to feel like an eternity” before being told by my parents that it will over in a heartbeat. They were right. After the end of every semester, I always felt as if it just began, and that’s continued with nearly everything else in my life.

Then come University, it felt it went by faster than the blink of an eye. I can easily recall my first day, getting up at six in the morning, worried sick about the commute, navigating the campus, the new experiences, wanting to get through the next four years to go by soon as possible. They did.

Every year I freaked out how much closer I was to graduation, because it didn’t feel real. Then come graduation, I was almost shocked how the four years went by. Every day felt like yesterday.

And it’s not just school or special moments that go by quick; it’s regular life.

I think we all feel a little bewildered come every New Year’s Eve, wondering how the year left as fast as it came.

For me, I especially feel it every Christmas. When it’s over, I always wonder how it doesn’t feel like it lasted long enough. I always feel we just put up our tree at the beginning of the month, watched all the movies, and did everything I usually do for Christmas. Is that because I love Christmas so much?

Is that why we feel everything goes by so fast, because we enjoy it? Why we remember certain moments, but others we forget? I can remember a day that happened when I was five, but yet I can’t remember something that happened last week. And that’s not short-term memory loss.

Things we enjoyed, we cherish, we remember more clearly than things that don’t have any real value or significance to us.

Special family vacation trips I can picture clearly, yet certain days that were not long ago are cloudy.

The list of things I remember that felt they just happened can go on and on. I think about almost anything and everything I can remember, and never seem to have a concrete answer as to why they feel so recent, yet so far away in time.

Really, there’s no way to combat or win against time. The best we can do is enjoy our time, live in the moment, as I’ve previously said in other columns. Take time to enjoy those moments.

For parents, you always feel your kids grow up so fast. Maybe you don’t need to enjoy them as babies and children through a lens, use your own eyes once in awhile.

Sure, those times we enjoy do go by quickly, but that’s a good thing. You can remember it and have something to look back on, because you were there, physically and emotionally, and it was a good time.

Time is a precious thing that shouldn’t be wasted, and the only way to enjoy is to find the right balance, the best way to handle it. Maybe then, it won’t feel like it’s zooming by in a flash.

         

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