The two truths of time

By KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

Last night I was sitting in my apartment, trying desperately to come up with something, anything, to write for my column this week. As I scratched through my list of ideas?none of them being quite right?I could hear the ticking of the clock in my living room, which was quickly echoed by the clock in my kitchen.

Tick, tick, tock, tock. Tick, tick, tock, tock. Tick, tick, tock, tock.

I didn?t know if the clocks were just trying to hurry me along or make me feel nervous, like time was slowly slipping by and my deadline was nearing.

No matter their purpose, soon enough the rhythmic pulsation became almost soothing.

Tick, tick, tock, tock. Tick, tick, tock, tock.

No matter how soothing or nerve racking the clocks were making me, the time was steadily marching on and it made me think of a few things.

First, how as I grow/age, however you want to phrase it, time seems to keep moving faster. And as my mother always cautions me, it will continue to go faster.

I remember as a child how long and drawn out my school days seemed to be; especially math class. Even in the summers, the days seemed to linger. For the first few weeks of vacation, it was a blast, but time always seemed to slow down and I?d run out of things to do. This usually led to boredom, which led to mischief and hijinks and usually some type of labor-intensive punishment, like cleaning or pulling weeds.

In contrast, the last few years seemed to have flown by at warp speed! As I sit here writing this it?s astonishing to think that this time last year I was in Columbia, Mo., curled up on one side of the couch, opposite my best friend and roommate, watching our last holiday flick and talking about all the possibilities of the new year. I blinked and my home and career changed. I blinked again and I?m here, in New London and back to my love of writing- despite how difficult it can be sometimes. It has all happened so lightening quick and I fear, as my mother predicted, each year will just go faster than the one before.

The second thing I noticed is that no matter what, time is a constant. I know this contradicts my first point, but both are true. No matter how fast time seems to go, that is simply my perspective of time because it will always march at the same pace.

Tick, tick, tock, tock.

Now, I?m not one to make resolutions, I don?t like to make promises I have no intention of keeping, but during the course of 2015 I will try to remember the two things my clocks illuminated for me.

Even though time seems to move fast, I will try to take the time to live in the moment. This year I will not schedule out every second of my day because when all is said and done, I?m not going to remember the lists that I?ve made. And because time is a constant, I will try to make each of those ticks and tocks count because they?re kind of a countdown of sorts; a countdown to the end of a deadline, a year, a chapter in my life.