The Value of Time

They say there’s always a right time for everything in life..a right age is probably one of the more commonly used terms...So yeah, there’s a right time for everything. There’s the time when you first start to walk, probably when you’re just about a year or two old, the time when you first go to kindergarten and the world still seems like a miniature playground, the time when you first start school and are surrounded by friends, formulae, mean teachers and tons of homework, and the time of high school where you’re probably going through the everyday drama of a teenager’s life (tiffs with teachers, your first crush, prom!). Then comes the time of college or University, the more “serious” side of life so far, eventually the time of earning your own bread to survive, the time when you give your heart away to someone for eternity, the time when your first child is born, and so on and forth...But is there really a “right time” for everything? And can you really know when the time is “right”? How can you even define what the “right time” and “wrong time” is? 

Your life is made up of a million of bygone seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years. It carries important moments with it, moments that might seem to you too trivial to even remember now, yet might have constituted an important part of your present being.                                                                             

Do you remember the one moment in your life that changed it all for you? Was it the time you got accepted into a prestigious University, or the time you first realized you were in love? Was it the time you had your first real success, or the time you felt your first true loss? There are so many moments in your life that pass you by without you actually realizing their true value until one day you sit back and ponder about which moment it was that changed it all..and you would be amazed at how difficult it is pointing out just “one” of those many moments and saying “This is it, this is the moment that changed it all for me.”. 

So value each and every moment of your life, you never know, it might be life altering, even if you are unable to see it instantaneously.

Truth be told, life is uncertain and hazy, a series of fleeting pictures drawn together by a mixture of emotions and time, and so is every day you spend on earth. People often say, “Life changes in the blink of an eye”, and I used to firmly stand against this since for me life had been the same monotonous routine for many years. It was only when one of my very close friend died that I realized the truth behind that statement. It literally took place in the blink of an eye, one moment she was there, and the next she was just gone... Grief struck and saddened by her sudden demise, I wondered how such things could possibly happen and my mind was filled with infinite questions. Why her? Why now?  Why so soon? Why did I not get a chance to even say goodbye? Why? ...

However, in spite of all the pain this terrible loss has caused me, I think I did learn some valuable and life altering lessons that very day. Lessons I will remember for the rest of my life, lessons that will now become the foundation of my entire life... It dawned upon me then that moments are the most precious possession human beings can hold in this world.  

They’re the only thing permanent in your life, the only thing that doesn’t change when everything else around you changes. They’re the foundation of your entire life, sort of like your inner mental skeleton. Every single one of them is equally precious, and should be valued. I realized also that day that tomorrow is promised to no one and that your time on earth is limited, even more limited than you might actually think... cause the truth is, you never really know how long your stay on planet earth is booked for... Life is uncertain and it does change in the blink of an eye, the moment of a short smile, or even the glimpse of a shooting star in the night sky...

Another important thing I realized that day was the uncertainty of time itself. When you think of time, you always think of all the minutes and seconds you still have to spend, it gives you a sense of duration, a sense of stay, a sense of belonging, and a sense of permanence. But what happens when this sense of time is suddenly ripped away from you? What happens when you are suddenly unable to define an exact time period? It’s scary, isn’t it, the thought of not being able to define time... Thinking about this, I realized that there might never be a “right” time, or for that matter of fact, even a “wrong” time. “Right” and “wrong” just seem to disappear when you think of the uncertainty of time, your time on earth.

In the past two months, I have therefore laid less value on time and it being “right” or “wrong”, cause I know that it’s an uncertainty no one can ever tell you. The loss of my friend proved it all...time can never be “right” or “wrong”, it can be prescribed, but it still will never be the absolute truth. Time, like life, is indecisive and unpredictable, and I want to believe in this from hence onwards... I want to believe in living for the moment, for the present, cause these are the moments that will make your life count...                                                           So for all of you out there who are wondering whether this is the “right” time to perhaps take a step forward, or backward, make certain decisions, fall in love, take the job, or simply do nothing, I would say “Just do it!” Don’t wait for the “right” time to come, ‘cause it might never come and you might end up waiting forever.   Live for the moment. Follow your heart. Make decisions you feel are right and most of all trust that it is all going to work out alright in the end.

A

xx