Well, it's the end of the semester. Man oh man, time flies. I cannot believe the school year is halfway over. (Something I like to say to my colleagues this time of year: "Gosh! One of these days I gotta start teaching.") I also can't believe that the days are getting longer. I left the school at 5 p.m. today, and it was still light out. The sun was down, it was about 15 degrees, but at least it wasn't dark!
Anyway, I've got a couple of stories from these past few days to share, but I have a bag of papers to grade and enter before tomorrow. Grades are due at 3 p.m.! Not a good thing for slackers like me.
But I'll leave you with my theory on why time seems to go by faster the older you get (not sure if it's a theory or even if it's really mine, but whatever):
Time goes by faster the older you get because of fractions. When you're one, the year it takes to get to your second birthday is one-half of your entire life. That's a long time. Even in your teens, a year is one-fifteenth or one-sixteenth of your life. But now that you're well into your 30s, a year is a much smaller fraction of your life. And so a year doesn't last as long as it used to. I mean, this week is practically halfway over. This month is coming to a screeching (and freezing) end.
Leading one to this question: How can you slow it all down? One way, I suppose, is to do new things. By doing something memorable every day (or, sheesh, once a week), you slow life down, basking in all the newness of your existence. Or at least you can reflect on it all and say, Wow, I've done a lot. Another way to slow down time, I guess (although I don't know), is to reproduce. Yes, by watching your children go from zero to one, you get to see a human's entire lifetime (so far) pass by the way it should: slowly, interestingly, with wonder, with joy. Plus, waking up every few hours to feed the baby will make your nights feel like mini-lifetimes.
See you later! I gotta go experience something new now. (Yup, first time grading papers this year.)
2 comments:
When you have kids, time slows to a grind until you potty train the buggers, yet you age much faster.
Yup, a real paradox.
Time has NO relevance. It does not go fast or slow. We just tend to give it such characteristics to explain to ourselves why things repeat, why they are unique, why we live through them, and why they are meaningful...
Have u ever tried to abandon time completely? Just take off your watch and enjoy! Every segment of existence becomes meaningful when you no longer measure it in time. No more tomorrow- no more I don't feel like spending time this way. When we have no plans all of a sudden everything seems fun and meaningful. Some of the best moments in life are the unplanned ones. When there's no direction or expectation.
DS
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