Timing is everything.

The notion of time and the invention of the clock are among the most life-changing technologies that humans have developed throughout our short existence. The clock runs our lives. From the minute we are born, we submit ourselves to its fleeting nature. 

Time is both a soothing and anxiety-inducing concept. Humans are creatures of habit and cling to routine. Yet perhaps what we also fear more than anything is the passage of time; the years fly by and we continue to grow ever older. 

I always feel like I'm fighting a constant battle with time. As a student who goes to college 3,000 miles away from her hometown, significant other and her family, there are many late nights where I find myself staring at the countdown app on my iPhone. 

I spend so much time wishing it away, and then the day I return home (or whichever day I am most looking forward to) arrives in a flash. Breaks from school go by quicker and quicker with each passing year. 

I never want to wish my life away. My parents always told me not to rush growing up. Everyone has heard the countless cliches, but never believes them until some form of reality approaches. "It only gets worse from here." 

I suppose the only answer to this constant battle of looking forward to the future but dreading the speed at which time passes is another cliche: live in the present. It's a phrase that is repeated with ease, but is rarely enacted. Time presses us to constantly look forward or backwards. Even when we try to enjoy a moment fully for what it is, there always tends to be something in the back of our minds that distracts us from doing so. 

As I have been trying to live more in the moment this summer, I've realized that you can't escape the minor impending anxieties. You will always be thinking about your upcoming flight back to school, that major paper you have due in a week or a crucial job interview. Living in the present is less about forgetting about your worries or priorities, and more about acceptance of the passage of time. 

Once I accept that time is passing, and that it is passing quickly, I tend to ask myself: why can't I be happy right now? Deadlines will come and go, but there's nothing you can do about it. Why consume your life with thoughts of the future or the past when you could be happy at this very moment? You can decide to act; you can decide to be happy. 

It's hard to say that anyone can ever completely master the act of living in the present. Yet if we come to terms with the fact that time is passing, and that we can't do anything about it, we realize that we ought to take advantage of it.  

(photo by Jamie Beck of Ann Street Studio)