I noticed a long time ago that time travel really does exist, just not in any way that we’ve ever considered it before. I first noticed it in high school.
I have never been a morning person, unless you count staying up past midnight and into the wee hours as ‘morning’. My mom used to pour me a cup of either hot tea or coffee in the morning to haul my sorry ass out of bed and get me on the road to school. I was the only kid in elementary school with coffee breath. I stayed up late every night simply because I couldn’t go to sleep – my mind was always too active. Still is. As soon as my head hits that pillow, I start thinking about all the stuff I want to do, or need to do, or should’ve done, or should’ve written – I think you get the picture.
What I noticed, though, was that time seemed to shift from high to low gear depending on the time of day, dragging or pushing me along with it.
Example: In the morning, I would be running late. Way late. I’d notice that the clocks or my watch or whatever, would work against me. School was fifteen minutes away and I had twenty, but those minutes would fly by as if someone were holding me back and urging the clock onward. I’d inevitably be late for my first class even though I had ‘plenty of time’ to get there.
As soon as I sat down, time would come to a stand still but I felt like I was speeding up and watching from the sidelines. Where just a moment before, the hands of my watch were spinning out of control, they now struggled to take a single tick forward. Have you ever tried to run in the swimming pool? It’s sort of like that. In between classes, time would speed up again and I would slow down. I would struggle to make it across campus from one class to the next even though they gave me five whole minutes. The clock, however, would speed up and leave me in the dust. I’d get to class just as the bell rang, and then we were back to running in the swimming pool.
Time practically stood still while I struggled against it.
Lunchtime was another anomaly of time. It would fly by at the speed of light! No sooner had you gotten your lunch from the cafeteria line and sat down with your friends (usually in the library to play a little D&D) than the first bell rang and you had to get to class!
It made no sense! we had a whole hour, didn’t we?! Where did it go?!
The afternoon’s were the worst. Time would stall and stall until the last bell of the day rang and we were free again to pursue our own interests. Two or three hours until dinner, plenty of time to hang out, shoot baskets, play a video game – right? Wrong. Before you knew it, it was time for dinner, then homework (I didn’t do much homework), then bed to start it all over again.
Frustrating how time would fluctuate and work against us, almost as if it had a mind of its own.
I thought for sure all of this would end after school, but it didn’t. Entering the workforce didn’t change a danged thing! Mornings still fly by and feel rushed, right up until you sit down at your desk, and then everything seems to slow and drag on until Lunch, when time ramps up again and makes sure that your hour just flies by. The afternoon lingers just like the old days, until you get off from work and then there doesn’t seem to be enough time to get everything done in the evenings that you wanted to get done.
Time Travel!
It exists.
~P
