Life Comes At Ya Quick

Those 5 words have been reverberating around my mind for a while now, and I am not entirely sure if it’s because it’s a direct quote from a funny Thundercat and Kenny Beats video I have seen too many times, or if it’s because I have been feeling that sentiment more and more in my life.

I feel like I’m not alone in thinking that the sentiment that “Our perception of time perpetually gets faster and faster as we get older” is not only true, but also kind of sad… Sad But True, you are welcome Metallica fans, and that will be the last cultural reference for this piece. I don’t know if that is part of why people have such strong nostalgia for times gone by, but it would make sense. When you were a child, your weekend felt like forever. But nowadays, I take a nap on Friday and wake up in Sunday afternoon.

For a while, what was tough for me to grapple with, was that I didn’t want to believe that it was true (“it” being our perception of time changing in a seemingly negative way). Once I realized it was true, it became “It’s real, but it’s not that bad”. But now, I am willing to admit, this just sucks. I cannot think of the last time I truly felt relieved of stress, and a large part of that is because, for me, I need time away from everything to fully decompress. But time moving as quickly as it does now just says “NOPE! You just sat down to relax? Wanted to take a quick break before doing some work around the house? It’s been 2 hours already! And by the time you finish reading this, it’s been 3 hours!”

I’m writing this all out, because I had a moment earlier today where those words echoed through my head. “Life comes at ya quick.” And the only response I could think to that was… Yea, it’s true. I can’t do anything to change that fact, I can’t slow down time, I can’t change how any of that works. And it’s only going to get faster and faster from this point forward, so I might as well accept it, and try my best to go with the flow. Not exactly a happy ending to this little story, but I feel it’s better to accept the reality of the situation so I can try to make things better, rather than lie to myself and only make things worse.