Time does fly when you're having fun

In my high school, we had half a dozen foreign languages to select from as part of our school schedule. Being ever so practical, I chose Latin. And not just one year of Latin, I took three years of the dying/dead language.

Other than conjugating verbs into six forms, the only other thing I remember from class is the large, round industrial clock on the wall by the door to the classroom. That clock was my focus for most of the class period as I watched the thin, red second hand slowly tick around in circles with the minute hand bearing inching along.

Despite liking my teacher and not actually hating the class, I was literally watching time pass by. As George Bernard Shaw said, “Youth is wasted on the young.” Essentially it means, youth should be having the time of their lives instead of stressing out over things that don’t matter...or wasting it by watching a clock.

When we are young, we have months, years and decades ahead of us so the days seem limitless. But at some point, we look up and the years have flown by and we have fewer days ahead of us than we have behind us.

Does time actually speed up? Does time go by quicker as you get older? Does time really fly by when you are having fun? I would argue that the answer is yes to all three questions.

Why does time seem to speed up as we get older?

When we are young, we have lots of “momentous” occasions to differentiate the years.

Every birthday is celebrated with candles and cake and family gatherings. Then at some point, it switches to a birthday card from your mom (and Sharon Bohling if you are lucky). And over the years, the decades get recognized rather than the individual years.

So using my fuzzy math, one decade when you are older equals one year when you are younger.

There are also school programs, graduations, weddings and a lot of “firsts” to break up the year. But as we age, priorities change. Getting laundry washed, dried, folded and put away within one week is cause to celebrate whereas an anniversary barely gets a mention. The years begin to blur together unless there is something to break up the days, weeks, months and years.

A few years ago when I realized I was closer to 50 than I was to 40, I began to intentionally do at least one thing a year that was different, that was new, that was a little bit terrifying...just to break up the years. It has ranged from doing a 15-hour Ironman triathlon to getting up on a wakeboard behind the ski boat. This year was dedicated to teaching, both leading a yoga class and a college writing course.

Does time go by quicker as you get older? Actually, mentally it does.

When you are younger, a year is a large chunk of your life. A year to a five-year-old is a whopping fifth of their life. For a 10-year-old, a year encapsulates so many changes. To a 16-year-old, a year contains so many memories, all of which are the most important things in their life...so far.

A year to a 50-year-old is a blip on the radar. The bills arrive in a steady stream. The errands never seem to end. And the laundry never gets done, completely. A year is just a sliver of your lifetime.

So what does this have to do with making our community a better place to call home?

Earlier this week, we all flipped our calendars from November to December. (We’ll wait for those of you who just thought to do it to return….)

The last month of 2021 has arrived. I cannot be the only person who thought to themselves, “Where did the other 11 months go?” “How can the year be nearly over?” “Is this nail really going to be able to hold up the 11 pages of the calendar?”

But rather than lament that the year is nearly over, let’s seize the opportunity to celebrate everything we have accomplished this year, small and large. Let’s take a moment to reflect on all the things that happened, good and bad.

Looking forward, let’s take a minute to cherish our family and friends who make our years so much fun that they fly by. And let’s use this last month to think about what we can do to make our community an even better place to call home next year. And make it a year to remember.