“He was a wonderful person and what little time I did get to spend with him was a blessing. He was too young.”
“Life is too short. I miss you.”
Time influences every life and is a constant presence in life. Every story if life relates to time, but in the past week, when I received this assignment, I was reminded of one of the worst characteristics of time: Time is always fleeting and it can be scarce when you need it most. This scarcity is found in many elements everyday. I find scarcity in the time spent with the college decision, during field hockey, and with personal relationships. Through these experiences I have learned time is always elapsing and causing new unwanted endings in life.
I felt the pressure of the shortage of time when I had to pick a college. I had years, then months, then weeks, then just days to make my decision. Where did the time go? It was as if it continued to fly around me and I just stood still trying to make such a difficult decision in my life. But as my crucial time continued to deplete, I made a decision. I would attend the University of Richmond the following fall. It was not an easy choice to make and the pressure of the time crunch did not make it any easier. Time is unyielding and this was one of the first situations when I realized just how difficult it could be to be in a situation where time can run out. But I am glad that I made the decision and that this deadline pushed me toward it. Other situations with little time have not faired so well in my life though.
The second instance that stands out in my memory of having little time occurred earlier in my senior year at the district field hockey championships. For the second year in a row our team worked our hardest to make it to this game and all we had to do was beat one more team to make it to State. It was the end of the second half and we were losing 1-0. We had time left to win, but very little. Each pass that was made or foul that occurred took up more of the precious time that we had remaining in the game. Obviously, being in the game at this time I wasn’t thinking of the impact of time on my life, but looking back now, I think of this moment every time I think of how time has affected my life. It came down to the last thirty seconds of the game and we had one last chance. We got a corner off of the other team’s foul and set up with everyone and everything we had on the line. One shot, two shots, three shots, and then cleared. The whistle blew and we were out of the precious time that we needed so badly. My team lost that day and that was my last game I played with that team. Looking back I remember if we had just had a little more time, just one more minute we could have done it. But we didn’t, time stops for nothing and is unyielding. In this situation time was not on my side.
As stated in the introduction, this past week alone has reminded me of the scarce qualities of time that I have refenced in the stories above. But the lack of time that I was referring to then is the worst kind of all. The time that runs out when a life ends. The quotes at the top of the page came from my Facebook and refer to a friend of mine from home that suddenly died from a preknown heart condition at the age of twenty this past week. For him and for many others, the time of life ran out much too soon. Not only did time run out for my friend and neighbor, Scott, but it also ran out for those of us around him to spend time with him. Time for us was too short to get to be with and really know a great person like Scott. He lived behind me for almost my entire life, and in that time I can think of a few instances when we interacted either in the neighborhood or at school, but to me that is not enough. I wish that his time had not gone so fast and I could go back and get to know him better that I did. Death, to me, is the ultimate proof of the fact that both time is too short and unyielding. Other than the recent loss of Scott, I have also lost others in my life very close to me including all of my grandparents. The little time that I got to spend with each of them is now in the form of just precious memories. The time for us to spend together was so scarce, that my memories are few, and even nonexistent in some cases. Like in making the decision, or in the game, time just ran out and it is precious time that I cannot get back again.
Yes, there are many positive aspects of time and organized time that have led to countless human advances. But through my own life experiences, I have realized the negative effects that time, or lack of time, can have on our lives. Time is continuously fleeting and we can never go back once it has passed. We need to use to the fullest the time we are given. We need to spend that time going over every detail of any life decision. We need to work our hardest in that game so we feel we have nothing left when time has run out. Most importantly, we need to make the best of the time that we have with those in our lives, for we never know when it may run out for good.
It is so true how fleeting time can be, sadly it is often the moments we wish would last that fly by the fastest. Often times the best thoughts are those that are after the moment has passed. For example, the other day I was taking a test and completely blanked on a part of the test, after I had turned the test in and walked out of the room I realized a way to solve the question that could have gotten me points back. Most often points aren’t what you want back though. Sometimes is the last you will see someone for a very long time and you never want that departure time to arrive, or that someone is coming soon that you haven’t seen and each day lasts longer and longer as you approach their arrival. Time is an attribute of life we should respect and use more than we do because of how fleeting and important it is. Thank you for sharing your story with us, I hope time lasts longer next time.
I completely agree with your statement here. I can personally relate to all three of your examples and understand exactly what you’re saying. It can seem like there is not enough time left or that when looking back with it comes down to the last moments you will spend with someone and realize that you may have wasted some of the time doing silly things when you could have been with them and that can be very saddening. The hockey example is one that I have felt many many times during games. When it comes down to the last minute and the clock keeps ticking to the last ten seconds when the fans count down it can be overwhelming and intense. When you look back at the game, you analyze every part of it and think about how you wasting a certain play by not passing it to a certain person or doing something differently to make that play work. But in the end, the time is gone and you are stuck wondering what happened to the time and why does it seem now that it has gone by so fast?
First of all, thank you for sharing such a personal piece of writing with us–I know that must have been difficult to do. I could feel your heart pour into this essay. I too have lost close friends/relatives long before I had spent anywhere close to enough time with them and I know the emotional spectrum which accompanies writing about these instances. Although it seems like any given moment can last far longer than it should, time goes by unimaginably quickly and we cannot regain moments, situations, victories, fallacies, or the people we love. I know you carefully thought about every line of this essay and portrayed your true and pure feelings on the situations you described–it is abundantly evident throughout the text. This made it very relaxing and soothing to read even though you reflected upon dense and emotional points in your life.