Older people (like your teacher) say things like time flying or where did all the time go? We have ten more days left in the 3rd quarter. Does it feel like time is flying to you? (Why/Why not)

This is one subject where I’d be very surprised if my students saw things similar to my experience. Now, as a kid I remember summer afternoons that seemed to stretch on forever and Christmas Eve nights with cousins that were unbearably long. But as an older person I can’t believe how fast the last ten or twenty years have flown by. Ten years ago I was right in middle of my IVIG treatments for my auto-immune illness (CIDP). For my students, that’s over two-thirds of their life experiences and they probably don’t remember anything from before the age of four… 

I’ve heard it explained that because the same amount of time for me is a smaller percentage of my living memory versus someone much younger, that the sense of how swiftly things move is based on my much larger reference. If I’m holding on to 60-years of memories and my student is holding on to 10-years, what happened to me 6 years ago is going to seem like 1-year ago for my student (assuming that I’m remembering anything with much clarity…). So if you’ve been around for 60-years each day is going to feel like just a brief moment, versus someone who has been at it for just 10-years. 

One downside of having been around for so long is that I’m more aware of the moments when I find myself just letting time slip through my hands. Most recently that would be when I’ve been compelled to substitute for fellow teachers and there’s nothing for those students to do for the 50-minutes that we’re together. Normally I’m trying to cram as much effort into every minute of my day, but this is the exact opposite where I just need to get through the next five minutes, ten minutes, 15 minutes, etc., then I can get back to whatever I’d rather be doing. I guess I’m lucky in that my default mode is making the most of each moment and not “living for the weekend.” I know it’s time to change things when I find myself too frequently wanting time to fly, given that I have so much less of it to spend than I did before. 

Where are you in the spectrum? Do you feel like every time you blink whole seasons have flown by or are you watching the clock and can’t believe that it’s still X O’clock? Has it been years of drudgery and moments of peace or are you trying to cram it all into the Now? Either way, hope you have an excellent weekend and the following week is even better.