We’re Halfway Done?!!?!?!?
Written By : Grace Weidenhamer
Prepare for a brain dump.
It seems like last week I was waking up on January 1, pulling out my notebook, and writing down my goals for the year. I was honestly a little shocked when I took a glance at my calendar and realized that we were already halfway through the year. I was even more shocked to realize that we are closer to 2030 than we are to 2020.
Maybe it’s the post-pandemic time warp or maybe it’s just getting older, but time feels like it’s moving so fast!
I wake up on Monday and feel like the weekend flew by. On Friday afternoon, I feel like I was just making last weekend’s plans. We spend so much of our lives looking forward to something in the future for it to come and go before we even process what just happened. Birthdays, holidays, weddings, anniversaries - they get built up for weeks, or even months, and then fade into the past like a distant memory.
I am the type of person that turns on Christmas music on November 1 (sorry, not sorry), but then December 20th comes around and I get a little sad knowing it’s almost over (and the day hasn’t even happened yet!). Other times, I look back and wonder if I truly appreciated times that have passed.
As Andy Bernard says in the last episode of The Office, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”
That’s the funny thing about life: every day, every moment, is an opportunity to be considered part of the “good old days”. There are probably moments now where you look back on and think, “I wish I appreciated that more back then.” That could be having the structure of a 9-to-5, the financial stability of living at home, taking a really challenging class in college. None of these things are out of the ordinary, but things you probably take for granted that you may miss in the future.
At the beginning of this decade, I was starting college. Five years ago, I didn’t think I would be where I’m at today. Who knows where I’ll be in the next five years.
Social media makes it really easy to compare our status, achievements, and journeys with everyone else. In a stage of life where we are supposed to be figuring it out, trying things and failing at them, and focusing on ourselves, I think a lot of us feel like we are already behind.
In two years out of school I got my first job, then lost my first job. I’ve been unemployed, I’ve done internships as a college graduate, and I’ve worked part-time just to get by. I’ve been in my “career” for two years and yet I find myself in the stage of starting over, again and again.
One thing that comforts me is knowing that there are a million different directions my life could go (and my life has already taken some crazy turns). Some things I have control over, some I don’t. But worrying about the future, trying to cram everything in before it’s “too late”, and comparing your journey to others is a big ol’ WASTE of that precious time.