Time Flies

Andrew Francis

       As a kid, I was told all the time that "time flies", but I never knew what that meant until recently.

       I'm still young, 21 years old, but every week goes by quicker and quicker with each passing month. When I start each new year, as they come, it feels like every day becomes a smaller fraction of my experience, and every waking moment seems to accelerate in my scale of time.

       I hate it. I feel like I'm coming closer and closer to having to accept being an adult and letting my dreams remain naive fantasies that I'm doomed to abandon when responsibilities become more pressing and my priorities change. But maybe the larger issue is that I'm letting these dreams go without a fight. This is the last of my undergraduate years, soon I'll be put into the "real world," and I only wish I could wind back the clock and appreciate every moment of college, and even the years before then, that I let fly by. There's so much that I wish I had known.

       I wish I could tell myself to get out of bed, get off my phone, and go outside. Hang out with my friends, or do something that would make me truly happy.

       I wish I could tell myself to stop worrying about what other people think and realize that fulfillment comes from within oneself, not the affirmation of others.

       I wish I could tell myself that what I want should be my top priority, that life is exactly what you make of it.

       I wish I could tell myself to pursue my passions truly and not just go down a path that I feel is drawn out for me.

       I wish I could tell myself to take the next step, that it is now or never.

       Even now, I have not fully accepted my advice entirely, and I feel I've been cursed with letting time take the reins over me. And soon, I won't be able to say, "I'll just do it later".

       Soon, it will be too late to make my life about me.