3% Gone

Remember when you were little and you were looking forward to something? Something like your birthday, or Christmas, or Summer vacation from school? If you're like me, it seemed like the simple fact that I wanted some date to arrive, caused that date to arrive as slowly as possible. I used to believe that the power of the mind somehow made time appear to slow. The key was to distract myself from dwelling upon the object of my desire.

Broach the subject with practically anyone these days and they'll tell you that life is simply too busy. You'll hear things such as:

"Can you believe it's almost 2009 already?"

"Where did Summer go?"

"It seems like last Christmas was just a few weeks ago."

It's true, to some extent. When I was little, artificially filling my time with other things helped me to forget about the passage of time. And now that I am older, my life does seem to be busier. However, time is still ticking off the clock now at the same rate it was 30 years ago. A minute is still 60 seconds long.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that it all boils down to perspective. I am in a period of my life that is full of goals and ambition; full of things I have to and want to do that I could not do when I was younger due to lack of resources or ability inherent with age, and full of things that I might not be able to do later on in life due to age, health or circumstance.

When I was two, I had to wait half as long as I had lived at that point in order to reach my next birthday. Half a lifetime is a long time to wait. 

I'm 33 now. Currently, each year represents about 3% of my entire lifespan. If each of my 33 years represented 3% of my life, I'm now at 99% with just a bit left to go. The years are flying past me right now - and not for lack of awareness - but because there is still so much I want to get out of life. Life is especially rewarding right now with our young children and I'm keenly aware of how quickly it is passing.

Depending on your perspective, the good news is I think life will once again appear to slow down. When I'm old, say 90, each year will be approaching approximately just 1% of my lifetime. I imagine I'll say something to the other geezers at my home like, "Dude, 365 long days and I'm only one year closer to the end."