Well, that was it. Christmas is quickly becoming a distant memory and 2014 has come and gone. For me the passing of yet another year always leaves me wondering what the heck happened? It feels like it was summer just a few weeks ago but I know that couldn’t possibly be true as the days continue to get shorter and shorter, and the long, cold darkness of winter sets in.
I remember being a kid and suffering through what to me was always the most boring class – Social Studies. (Before you start writing me letters scolding me for my distaste of Canadian history, I know now how important the class is now but at the time I hated it and was more interested in what excitement the future held than I was in the past). I can vividly remember sitting in Social Studies watching the clock, as the minutes seemed to take eons to pass. Time was a torturous thing back then.
Summer break always seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye but the weeks leading up to it always moved in slow motion like a fly trudging through sticky molasses.
As an adult, time seems always to be moving at speeds only the Millennium Falcon could reach. It’s as though an entire year has been crammed into a month and before I know it, half a decade has passed.
When I do take the time to slow down and process things, which for me often results in taking a minute to actually look at myself in the mirror, I am astounded (and generally heartbroken) to find yet another grey hair or a new wrinkle. The most awful of all days is when I discover a pesky new hair growing somewhere it would have never had the nerve to grow when I was in my twenties – I’m looking at you cheek fuzz and I am not impressed.
On top of those physical signs of age (I dare not scare you with the signs of time happening south of my face), there’s an internal clock that ticks louder with each passing day.
Out of nowhere comes this tick, tick, tick. Women who never dreamed being a mom was in their future begin mulling over the idea of having children.
No matter how sure you were before the timer began that kids were never going to be something you wanted, the awareness that time is running out grows from an annoying little itch to a full-on, in your face, “look at me” screaming siren that you just want to throw on the floor and smash into a million tiny piece and yell, “I get it. I’m old.”
However, the passing of time is not all about getting older.
No, there is more to this time thing. Because with time comes a confidence no young thing in her twenties can comprehend.
One of my best friends recently split from her partner of 18 years. She is staring down 40 and in the midst of starting her life all over again. She’s had the days of earth-shattering sadness, for sure, but she has also taken on this new beauty I fail to find the right word to describe.
Whether she realizes it now or not, she exudes an attractiveness that can only be found in knowing ones self, learning from the mistakes of youth and accepting who you are as an individual. She walks with not only a certain freedom, now that she is no longer in an unhappy relationship, but also with an excitement for life and new adventures I haven’t seen in her in a long time. Needless to say, it looks good on her.
So whether you’re like me and time sneaks up on you or if like a kid waiting for summer break time drags on, remember it’s those moments in-between the passing of time that make us strong and we should try and enjoy them while we can.
