Oh where, oh where did our short week go?
Correct me if I am wrong, but every time a holiday falls on a Monday, the remaining four days of the week feel like an eternity. It is as if you keep thinking: Gee! Is it still only Wednesday?
That is somewhat how I have felt all this week, despite having Monday off. The week seemed painfully long and slow. Each day was a test in endurance and patience that was flowing like molasses through a funnel. Even though many people took this week off, the week started with some bad news, so that set the stage for a downturn. We found out a coworker died over the holiday weekend and he was only 38.
News like that shakes the foundation of many people who are careless about their health because they think they are young and, thus, invincible. My history makes it impossible for me to feel the same, but I can grasp the concept well enough. It is only when you have to witness a death – for no apparent reason – of someone in your age group that you finally wise up.
The news put a damper on the week. People in his department were easily identifiable, as they were the ones struck dumb with grief. Others were just talking about how young he was and how long he had worked for the company, which, incidentally, was 18 years. He was just a kid when he got the job! So it means a great big chunk of his life was spent working for this company.
These days, I usually think that time goes by too fast. I feel like just when I am catching up, it slips through my hands again and I am left chasing it. When I was a kid in school, I felt like time simply did not move! Summer vacation, Christmas vacation (it was still ok to actually call it Christmas vacation without offending anyone back then) seemed eons away. The waiting was insufferable. Now I look back at the impatience of childhood and smile because we knew so little then. We could never imagine that one day we would reach the point where wish on a star that we could discover time travel and go back to repair what (or whom) we might have damaged or hurt.
We never think as children that the day will come when instead of wishing for time to move so we could get “big”, we wish we had the power to hold it still a bit longer, so we could enjoy ourselves and stop to smell the roses.
However, once you have left that comforting cocoon of your mother’s womb, you are off and running whether you like or not. And once you have left the comforts and security of your parents’ home, then you are off and running again, but this time you think you know everything and you just can’t wait to get out there and prove it.
Suddenly, that feeling ends and soon you realize that this time you ran into adulthood. There you discover that you are not as prepared for it as you told everyone you were. You realize that you have been running and now you just want to stop and hold back and make sure that there isn’t someone you missed, something you forget or something you need.
By then, all you can really do at that point is just pray that you have reached these realizations while you still the luxury of time to use. You will want to go back, only as far as time allows, and fulfill whatever it is you think you need to fulfill before it is all too late.
Sometimes, when you have a really bad day – like when your coworker dies and you wonder what he wished he’d done before his time ran out – sometimes on days like that you wish you could start over, from scratch, right from Mommy’s womb.
That is somewhat how I have felt all this week, despite having Monday off. The week seemed painfully long and slow. Each day was a test in endurance and patience that was flowing like molasses through a funnel. Even though many people took this week off, the week started with some bad news, so that set the stage for a downturn. We found out a coworker died over the holiday weekend and he was only 38.
News like that shakes the foundation of many people who are careless about their health because they think they are young and, thus, invincible. My history makes it impossible for me to feel the same, but I can grasp the concept well enough. It is only when you have to witness a death – for no apparent reason – of someone in your age group that you finally wise up.
The news put a damper on the week. People in his department were easily identifiable, as they were the ones struck dumb with grief. Others were just talking about how young he was and how long he had worked for the company, which, incidentally, was 18 years. He was just a kid when he got the job! So it means a great big chunk of his life was spent working for this company.
These days, I usually think that time goes by too fast. I feel like just when I am catching up, it slips through my hands again and I am left chasing it. When I was a kid in school, I felt like time simply did not move! Summer vacation, Christmas vacation (it was still ok to actually call it Christmas vacation without offending anyone back then) seemed eons away. The waiting was insufferable. Now I look back at the impatience of childhood and smile because we knew so little then. We could never imagine that one day we would reach the point where wish on a star that we could discover time travel and go back to repair what (or whom) we might have damaged or hurt.
We never think as children that the day will come when instead of wishing for time to move so we could get “big”, we wish we had the power to hold it still a bit longer, so we could enjoy ourselves and stop to smell the roses.
However, once you have left that comforting cocoon of your mother’s womb, you are off and running whether you like or not. And once you have left the comforts and security of your parents’ home, then you are off and running again, but this time you think you know everything and you just can’t wait to get out there and prove it.
Suddenly, that feeling ends and soon you realize that this time you ran into adulthood. There you discover that you are not as prepared for it as you told everyone you were. You realize that you have been running and now you just want to stop and hold back and make sure that there isn’t someone you missed, something you forget or something you need.
By then, all you can really do at that point is just pray that you have reached these realizations while you still the luxury of time to use. You will want to go back, only as far as time allows, and fulfill whatever it is you think you need to fulfill before it is all too late.
Sometimes, when you have a really bad day – like when your coworker dies and you wonder what he wished he’d done before his time ran out – sometimes on days like that you wish you could start over, from scratch, right from Mommy’s womb.
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