A Story About Time

Time. It’s a word I seem to frivolously use throughout each day. I don’t have enough time to go to that meeting. I don’t have enough time to watch that movie, see that play, go to that soccer game, do that extra-credit assignment,or finish everything I’ve ever started.

Time is of the essence, and I just don’t have enough of it to sacrifice any.

School starts at 7:30 for me each morning. Some days I arrive to school at 7:20 with enough time for a leisurely trip to my locker and a relaxed stroll down the hall before the five-minute warning bell even rings.

But this is rare. If we took the mode (math term) of all of my arrival times to school each morning just in this semester, the time most frequently displayed would be more like 7:28 and 57 seconds.

I step out of the car most mornings just in time to hear that one-minute bell ding its reminder that I am late once again. On these mornings, I just hope and pray for time to stop, pause, and let me to get to class on time.

Then there are other days when I want to speed up time. SAT practice tests, orthodontist appointments, certain homework assignments, and so forth. There are some things that I know I have to get through, but can’t wait to fast-forward or speed by them and just be done with them altogether.

I want to bypass so many things and just skip directly to the good parts. It’s like I’m playing tug-of-war with Time - asking it to slow down, speed up, pause, replay, rewind, and fast-forward, all depending on my given mood or situation.

It probably thinks I can’t make up my mind. It’s right. 

I have a quote on the wall in my room from H. Jackson Brown Jr. It reads “Don’t say that you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same amount of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

That’s powerful. It makes me feel like I can do anything. Time doesn’t have to restrain you or be your enemy. If you work with it, you can wield it to help you do marvelous things.

I hope that one day I will actually live in a way where I don’t feel bound by time and feel the need to decline invitations over and over, only to realize that I had all the time in the world to spare. I won’t overcommit, but I also won’t overly deny these offers. Then Time and I can live in a harmonious relationship, realizing that every second is precious and that every single second deserves equal time.

That’s why we can’t fast-forward through life. Because then, some seconds wouldn’t get their justified chance to have their moment in the spotlight and show us new things that are valuable and shouldn’t be taken for granted.

So shine on, seconds. Show me what it means to live, and live well.

Follow Laurel on Twitter @LivingAsLaurel