Life Observations - Observation #1: Time goes faster as I get older

“I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed a few times since then.”

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

This is exactly how I felt when I was a child. My imagination was almost limitless. We lived behind the “iron curtain” (“iron curtain” was a geographical, political and informational separation of the USSR and Eastern Europe countries from the rest of the world from 1945 to 1989) and that would stretch my imagination even more. During the day I would dream of space trips, adventures in Africa and a victory of communism around the world (I genuinely believed that there would be no wars, no boundaries between the countries and we all would be the comrades forever!). At night I would look at the patterns on the wall, the carpet by my bed or on the wallpaper in my room, or check the frost images on the window, or trees behind the window, and I would create a parallel world full of beautiful places and magic creatures. Back then, every day and every night felt like an eternity. Every summer was endless. Every winter was desirable and never enough. Everything was memorable and unique.

As I was growing up, each year would go faster and faster. And I loved it. I wanted the first time events to happen: school graduation (I do not miss it at all, hope that doesn’t sound sad, does it?!), first love-second love-just love-was it love, university graduation, first job-no job-many short term jobs, first business, first and seems like last marriage (I always dreamed of three husbands, but no one listens to me up there, you know where; in his defence I forgot to ask for three marriages), first child-second child-no more children, first trip-second trip-many trips, etc. Everything was novel. Everything was exciting. Fast was good, fast was the norm.

I always believed that at middle age, life would slow down. I thought that I would have all the time in the world to reflect on life and relationships, analyze new ideas and make them happen, and never to multitask during my morning coffee. On contrary, I found that each year goes by faster and faster. Why does time have to race? Psychologists explain this phenomenon by fewer memorable events and new experiences in middle age (it’s not a numeric milestone anymore and no one wants to be categorized as middle aged). The days blend together. In other words, routine becomes the norm. Routine is comfortable, but... Routine makes life unremarkable. Routine does not make distinct memories. Routine makes time fly by.

Can we slow down time? Yes, we can. Please, please, please do the following:

• Live in the moment and notice beauty (a cliché, but try to master it in any situation, even, I mean especially, if you are surrounded by mediocre and boring people). Lovely things happen, when you are in the moment.
• Do new experiences and learn new things (another cliché, but try to make it big; use your time and brain wisely). This makes you sharper than ever.
• Make your dreams-goals-opportunities list! You may call all it LIFE list, BUCKET list, DREAM list or YOU NAME IT list (not a cliché at all, it’s “Wisdom #2” from my list of “Wisdoms” I’ve Learned So Far, but I will tell you more about it in my next post). Live with zest for life and own your desires.