Time is a funny thing. We know it always runs at the same speed. And yet, it never seems to. It speeds up. Slows down. All depending on what you happen to be doing at the time. When you're having a good time, then time flies. When you're sitting through a boring meeting or waiting for something really important, time drags. Most of us never seem to have enough time. When I first started college, I took a bunch of study skills courses. Note taking, memorizing, reading accurately, that kind of thing. I completed them all. All, that is, except for the time management course. You guessed it. I couldn't find the time! And time seems to speed up when you get older. When you're a kid, a week seems like an eternity; as an adult, weeks fly past like leaves in the wind. When I was 22 and was a
bout to get out of the military, they made me a re-enlistment offer. They would promote me to the next rank, cross-train me to a better job, send me to Crete - the garden spot of military assignments - and give me a guarantee follow-on assignment to anywhere I wanted to go, IF I would sign up for another six years. This was something for serious consideration. I was just finishing a four-year hitch. Sign up for another six and that makes ten years in. If you do ten years in the military, you're half-way to retirement age, so you might as well do twenty and retire. If I did that, I'd retire at 38!! I'd be an old man! My life would be over. There'd be nothing left for me to do. With that thought, I decided to get out of the military and get on with my life. Well, if I HAD stayed in until I retired, I would have retired thirteen years ago! And sitting here thirteen years later, I hardly feel like I'm an old man. And I have a lot of good years ahead of me. But way back then, 38 seemed like an awful long ways away. But now, time has sped up for me. When I look ahead, twenty years doesn't seem like nearly enough time to do all of the things I want to do. Now I wish for more time, wish time would just slow down. Mary Chapin Carpenter sings:
A million miles goes by in the blink of an eye
And so I cannot try to slow time down
And years are made of sand slipping through my hands
Even faster than the speed of sound.
Now I want time to drag like it did when I was younger, but it speeds faster and faster every year. Such is life, I guess.
bout to get out of the military, they made me a re-enlistment offer. They would promote me to the next rank, cross-train me to a better job, send me to Crete - the garden spot of military assignments - and give me a guarantee follow-on assignment to anywhere I wanted to go, IF I would sign up for another six years. This was something for serious consideration. I was just finishing a four-year hitch. Sign up for another six and that makes ten years in. If you do ten years in the military, you're half-way to retirement age, so you might as well do twenty and retire. If I did that, I'd retire at 38!! I'd be an old man! My life would be over. There'd be nothing left for me to do. With that thought, I decided to get out of the military and get on with my life. Well, if I HAD stayed in until I retired, I would have retired thirteen years ago! And sitting here thirteen years later, I hardly feel like I'm an old man. And I have a lot of good years ahead of me. But way back then, 38 seemed like an awful long ways away. But now, time has sped up for me. When I look ahead, twenty years doesn't seem like nearly enough time to do all of the things I want to do. Now I wish for more time, wish time would just slow down. Mary Chapin Carpenter sings:
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