Today is Sunday, August 30, 2009. That means the day after tomorrow is the first of September. For most of the U.S., school has already started. In fact, school was out for the summer where I live the second week of May and started back on August 10th. It really caught me off guard when I saw ads in July for back-to-school clothes and school supplies. Somehow it just didn't seem right. It was the middle of summer, how could school be starting already? When I was in school [back in the dark ages :)], we attended classes until Memorial Day (observed here in the U.S. on the fourth Monday in May) and didn't return until Labor Day (the first Monday in September). Obviously…times have changed.
And didn't Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November in the U.S.) used to be the start of the Christmas shopping season? The Friday following Thanksgiving day the biggest shopping day of the year? And now? It's still the biggest shopping day, but now the stores have already been bathed in Christmas decorations for what seems like weeks. The radio stations start playing Christmas music much earlier than they used to. The Halloween trick-or-treaters have barely cleared the neighborhood streets the night of October 31st and the next morning we see Christmas decorations on the same houses where witches and goblins had reigned supreme the night before.
Then there's the larger scale of time. Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that we were celebrating the Millennium? How many of you watched at least some of the live television coverage of the year 2000 being ushered in from various countries around the world in different time zones through spectacular visual extravaganzas? And there was also the fear of Y2K when everything remotely computer related would suddenly stop functioning and bring the entire world to a halt one little second after 11:59:59pm on December 31, 1999.
And finally we come to the most dreaded acceleration of time. I'm not sure exactly when it started, but for several years now my birthday has come around quicker and quicker. I thought I had only one birthday month per year among the other months. Therefore, only one birthday per year. But now…well it seems like my birthday month is rolling around every seven or eight months. I swear my last birthday was only six months after my previous birthday. Bad enough getting older, but does it need to happen so often? And so quickly?
I'm sure there must be some type of scientific explanation for this phenomenon, but is there any way of stopping it. At least the escalating birthday part. :)
Am I alone in this? Do any of you have the sensation that time is speeding up, especially the turning another year older part?
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16 comments:
I know exactly what you mean, Samantha! The older I get the faster time seems to go. The theory is, as you acquire more years, your perspective is skewed, so the more memories you have the faster time seems to go, even though it moves at the same pace for an 11 year old. But that 11 year old has so much less years of memory built up.
I also think it has a lot to do with all the current things you have to deal with. With me, it just never seems like I have enough time to accomplish what I have to.
Susan: I think that's probably the bottom line...not having enough time to accomplish what you want to accomplish. There are times when I feel that my entire day was wasted, but in reality it's because I was taking care of the 'needs' and didn't have any time left over for the 'wants'.
Samantha, you're not alone. My theory is similiar to Susan's. : ) When you're ten, a year is a tenth of the total time you've been alive... an eternity.
AT my age, a year is a very small percentage of the time I've been alive.
But you know what? I spent a lot less time bored now.
Lynne: I like that idea about spending a lot less time being bored. And I never ask, "Are we there yet?" when traveling in a car. :)
Every time I look in the mirror I see time passing. Who is that old woman anyways?
What happened to me?
Mary: Unfortunately, I know that one all too well. :) I'm just now going through cataract surgery, had the second eye done 2 days ago. So, now I can see just how old that woman really is. The soft diffusion of denial is gone and bright harsh reality has arrived.
I remember being a kid, back when dinasaur roamed the earth, and an hour of play last a really long time.
Now an hour is *snap* gone.
Janice~
Janice: That's so true. A long time ago (in a galaxy far far away) an hour was much longer than it is now. Time used to crawl and now it flies.
This too shall pass, Samantha. When old age, or the 'golden years', sneek upon us this will all reverse again. We'll be... making it to 70 and almost to 80... and at some point we'll start counting half years as an accomplishment. "Well, Martha. I'll be 89 and 1/2 next week."
As for the Hallmark Holidays. It's called retail. I refuse to even look in the isles of holiday items until a month before the event. Sorry, I'm not falling into the whole 'shop for decorations for Christmas all flippin' year long!' NO! I refuse... even if it's 90% off.
I notice the passage of time most when I look at my kids or meet up with old friends on Facebook.
When your kids are babies, everyone tells you that they'll be grown before you know it. During those late night feedings and cry sessions, you can't even imagine this. But it's so true. I can still so clearly remember bringing my babies home from the hospital, their first day of school, etc. Now they're teenagers. Sigh.
On Facebook, I've reconnected with old high school buddies. It feels like yesterday that we were hanging out, cruising the streets, pretending we were Jennifer Beale in Flashdance, listening to the Go-Go's. I still feel exactly the same inside, and can recall all the emotions and insecurities I felt back then...but it's 25+ years ago. Where the heck did the time go?
That's what makes me feel old.
My dad, who is a well of interesting sayings LOL, puts it like this "Life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes" :D
I used to spend all year dreaming up what I would be for Halloween the following year, now I'm like "Oh s**t, school's starting again? Do the kids know this?" LOL
Catherine: Me, too, on the shopping for Christmas decorations all year. I don't care how many decorations are in the stores or how many "Only (however many) shopping Days Until Christmas" ads in see in the newspaper, I cen't get with it until it's actually December.
Becca: Hooking up again with high school friends from years ago...isn't it amazing how much older "they" look and how you have hardly aged at all? At least that's how I find it when running into someone from years ago. :)
Bonnie: Oh, yeah. Those days of planning for something a year away, such as Halloween costumes, are long gone. Who has time any more? I have things happening next week that I need to worry about. :)
I agree with all you said, especially about the "birthdays seeming to come every 6 months". I don't know who that woman is in my mirror, but I read somewhere, the other day, that smearing ground fresh pineapple on my face will make her go away...
Deb: That woman certainly gets around. I saw her in my mirror, too. Don't know about the ground fresh pineapple. Maybe it would be easier to just close my eyes. :)
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