Chapter 1: Conceptualization of Time – How it Shaped Me and How it Might Impact You.

To begin, I just wanted to say that I am ridiculously scared to share this with the public. I have always written to myself. I used to write on several personal diary platforms and even have a diary that I keep with to myself on my phone. Opening this up to the public makes me feel immensely vulnerable. If these blog posts help even one person or even gives others a better understanding of me as a person, I think that it would be all worth it. Alright, with this being noted, let's continue.

From as far back as I can remember; time has always been something measurable. Something that we can wrap our head around. It’s something that we all plan our day around and it’s a tool that we all use to maintain some form of punctuality. However, given all of our uses of time in today’s society, the time has always been, the indefinite continued process of existing. Something so abstract that we cannot exactly wrap our head around without the construct of hours, minutes, time past, and before noon. The problem with today’s society’s use of time is that it is simply a tool that helps us turn time into a measurable value.

The indefinite continued process of existing. Two keywords to highlight are “continued” and “existing”. Throughout my adolescence, young adult, and present life; I have been found guilty of treating time as something that I simply dreaded.

Time is a commodity that won’t stop for anyone.

Before I move on, I just wanted to preface by acknowledging how over-said this phrase is in today’s society. However, in my eyes, having the consciousness to be conscious of that phrase throughout my day has only produced beneficial results.

Some examples of how I applied the idea that time won’t stop into my personal life range from sentimental, to something as traditional to events. For example, we all have those days where we feel like that day of your final exam is just around the corner, the last day of your summer vacation is just around the corner, and etc.

We are all so content with the idea of “continuous time” unless we have something that we might dread in the near future. Even though it sucks, we don’t have a remote to pause time and stay one more day in the presence of our significant other’s house, spend more time with family, spend one more hour at a concert with the friends you would take a bullet for, and/or etc. Take a second. Take your eyes off this article and think about that. After you’re done, I challenge you to pick one person to call, or hang out with and set a timer. Set a limited amount of time that you’ll allow yourself to hang out with the individuals that you deeply care for and feel genuinely comfortable with. Understand that time won’t stop and accept that this too shall pass. The moral of this exercise is to begin putting more emphasis on the time that we would love to put on pause. Cherish each experience that we have with these individuals we keep close to our hearts that occurs within this inevitably limited amount of time.

The sad truth is that we all have obligations and unfortunately, without continuous time, we physically aren’t able to grow as individuals in this world. We are all chugging along with the universal rate of time and following our own unique timelines. The thing about the future, and dreading the future because of continuous-time, is that the future is a variable. It’s something that changes based on your actions in the moment. Begin by treating time universally; it’s something that won’t stop for anyone. Put emphasis on not only the time frames that make us happy but also the ones that make us uncomfortable. Begin by making the most of what you can do in that given time frame that you have before the end of the semester or the end of that vacation that you booked. Treat time the same exact way in both scenarios and you know what? You tried your best, there’s no reason to look back into the past and wish to rewind time because you did the most you could within that time frame; and also, sorry to break it to you, a rewind button to life does not exist either. Treat time that makes us happy and makes us uncomfortable the exact same way and I promise, someone will always be there after all that and tell you, “you’re doing well”.

But wait, there’s a little twist, that “someone”, that will always be present during your short time on earth to tell you how great you’re doing will hopefully be yourself.