Does anyone think that time is going super fast?

[babs23r]

Hi, I’m getting a little freaked out. Every time I turn around, another week has passed, I have discussed this with other people and they agree. I have even discussed this with the middle schoolers whom I work with. Does anyone else feel like everything is on super speed. It’s very scary to me.

 

[monarch64]

This time of year always goes quickly. Lots of things going on with holidays, school semesters ending, winter approaching, etc. I think it’s just the season. Good news: January and February seem to drag on and on and ON, so there’s that.

 

[stracci2000]

Yeah, the older you are, the worse it gets.

 

[babs23r]

I thought it was the aging, but younger kids agree!!!!

 

[Calliecake]

Yeah, the older you are, the worse it gets.

This is sooooo true!!!

 

[kenny]

This is sooooo true!!!

I suspect time seems to go faster as we get older because a given chunk of time becomes an increasingly smaller percentage of time we've been alive.

The first number is your age, and the second number is the percentage of your life that that one year is.

1......100%
2......50%
3......33%
10....10%
20.....5%
50.....2%
100...1%

 

[elle_71125]

I absolutely agree that time is flying by. I know a good reason for that is the time of year (holiday shopping, planning, keeps me very busy) but I also believe that time appears to go faster as we get older due to the wiring in our brains. Since I'm terrible at explaining that, I'm adding in this section below that explains it very well.

"your brain is wired to catalogue and remember new experiences. When you are young, most of what you are doing is learning. Even when you aren't realizing it, you are constantly observing new things, having new interactions, and learning new things about the world and how it works. However, as you get older, you have fewer and fewer "original" experiences so your brain tends to gloss over them, storing them as groups instead of individual moments.

The effect is that during childhood you are remembering and cataloging many more experiences and so times seems to pass slower. It isn't actually passing slower of course, you are just remembering more specific incidents between two points, which skewers your perception of time. As you get older, your brain groups like experiences and you remember fewer instances between two points, so time seems to pass faster.

It's also why people can usually clearly remember events like their wedding, their first day on the job, the birth of their child, etc, because those things are rare and unique events, but they have trouble telling you what happened at work last Thursday because unless something unique happened that day it was just like 1000 other Thursdays at work that they've experienced. The brain just kinda glosses over it as a common experience.
Another common example is driving. Have you ever driven a road so many times (the same route to and from work or the grocery store for years, let's say) that sometimes you get home and honestly don't remember driving the route? That's your brain essentially ignoring the experience because there was nothing novel about it. When you are 16 and learning to drive, you never zone out like that because the roads and driving itself is so new and you are still learning. But at 35, driving is so second nature you often have such "blackout" periods. you don't actually blackout and you aren't unsafe, but after the fact, your brain just ignores the experience.

I hope that makes sense, but basically more unique experiences happen more often when you are young and that leads to more memories and brain pathways being actively formed and that leads to a perception that time is moving slower, but as you age you have fewer unique experiences and so your brain doesn't differentiate them and because you remember fewer unique events it seems as if time is passing faster.

If you want time to pass slower, go experience new things as often as possible."

 

[monarch64]

Interesting! I don’t feel that way at all. But, I’ve always felt younger than everyone around me and had a much different perspective.

I also get at least 8 hours of sleep every 24 hours. (Notice I didn’t say every night!) I make time to sleep. It keeps me young, I swear.

 

[Ally T]

I also agree. I put it down to the fact that as you get older, your responsibilities increase significantly, and with this comes more pressure on your time throughout each day. Then all of a sudden, you are at the end of each day in the blink of an eye, without getting everything ticked off the list or enough time to sit down for a hot drink!

 

[Austina]

This year has whizzed by

I don’t mind, because each week that goes by brings us nearer to a big move.

 

[missy]

Yes. It is all going so fast.

 

[House Cat]

There are times when I wake up at night and I can hardly breathe because I am overwhelmed with how fast twenty years has gone by. Twenty more years and I will be in my sixties! That will mean that I will only have, what? Forty or fifty more years to live after that?

In all seriousness, I do have the panic attacks. I guess the trick is to love every day. I keep telling myself to journal but for some reason, I don’t get around to it.

 

[babs23r]

I agree with everything that has been said. I guess it’s just the way our brains are wired. I guess I’m feeling my mortality. Sad, but true.
Maybe I’m just depressed.

 

[missy]

I often think about death and dying and the fragility of life. In fact it sometimes keeps me awake at night and when I was a little girl I was sort of obsessed with what death was and it scared me. I would close my eyes at night and try to feel the vastness of the darkness and think what is death and how does it feel? A black dark expansion of Nothingness all around. No feelings, no existence. No meaning anymore. Just Done. Now I take a more zen approach to it all but it does still sort of scare me.

If we didn't die, if we lived forever, life would be completely different. I don't think we would appreciate how wonderful life could be. I think everything would take on a whole new meaning. Don't get me wrong. I am not looking forward to death and I wish we were immortal but I also realize we would lose a lot of the value and preciousness of life if we lived forever.

Does that make sense? Sort of like without pain we cannot experience pleasure and without sadness we cannot experience joy. Without the knowledge that we all eventually will die we could not appreciate the great value of life and living.
IMO.

 

[missy]

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

[Austina]

I only worried about dying when my son was little, now he’s an adult, I just accept it’s an inevitable part of life. If anything were to happen to me now, although I hope I have many years ahead, I would accept its my time, and be glad that that I’ve had a great life so far.

 

[ksinger]

Missy, neither your poem nor this, is how I intend to approach my end, but in the same vein and found in my mother's things after her death...

Dirge Without Music - by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

 

[missy]

Missy, neither your poem nor this, is how I intend to approach my end, but in the same vein and found in my mother's things after her death...

Dirge Without Music - by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

Karen, thank you. This is exactly how I feel about death. This poem is beautiful and powerful and yes describes how I feel. It is inevitable but I don't like it.
Thank you for sharing this poem with us.

 

[december-fire]

Time is definitely going too fast; days, weeks, months and years are all flying by too quickly, often without lingering long enough for me to be aware of their presence.

The aspect that is most troubling is the time I've spent dealing with negative stuff.
Decades in a very unhealthy relationship, equal amount of time trying to please a narcissistic MIL, and years in an insanely long and expensive process to get divorced.

Time flies when you're having fun, but it also flies when you're involved in stressful, anxiety-inducing, negative stuff.

I can't slow down time, but I'm trying to make wiser decisions about what I do and with whom I share my time. Its much better to wonder where a week went if you can say 'well, the week flew by, but I did ... hit the gym, get the kids to the park, meet with friends, read a book, sew, paint, whatever.'

 

[babs23r]

These poems are wonderful, yet who knows how one will feel at that point in their lives. I just can't imagine ceasing to exist, but if we didn't wake in the morning, would we know????

 

[december-fire]

These poems are wonderful, yet who knows how one will feel at that point in their lives. I just can't imagine ceasing to exist, but if we didn't wake in the morning, would we know????

Some people think death is THE END, while others think its the end of this chapter.
Regardless, isn't it about what we do with the time we're here?
Isn't that all we really have control over?

 

[babs23r]

I do think that there is an afterlife, I get many signs.....
but who knows for sure?

 

[december-fire]

Some people firmly believe there is an afterlife.
Some people firmly believe there is not.
Of course, others aren't sure if there is or is not.
There are many topics like this; not everyone has the same belief or opinion.

I know what I believe, am comfortable with it, and feel no need to convince others to agree with me.
How we live, treat ourselves and others is what's important.
We can't be sure of much in life. Nothing wrong with thinking about stuff, reading, having discussions, etc., and I suspect its quite normal to do that at some point in life. Particularly when disease, accidents or death hit close to home. It seems to keep coming back to how do we spend the time we do have.
Fear, anxiety, stress, and depression aren't very effective at changing outcomes we perceive as negative.
Not that we can totally avoid all those emotions; with some unfortunate exceptions, all humans experience emotions.