The passage of time

19-06-2007 11:46pm #1

Apologies for the lenght of this in advance, and the sombre theme of it.

Right, when i was in primary school, every summer it seemed that going back to school time was always aaaaaaages away. Then, before you know it, i'm back in Guiney's with me ma, trying on blue shirts (me not her) and complaining that i still had 2 weeks left to play before it was September.

Then 6th class came along, and i was thinking, "Jaysus, that whole primary school thing went fairly sharpishly......at least i've a year left and a confirmation and entrance exam to do before i'm a small fish in a big pond again". Before you know it, again, It's August '94 and i'm sitting in the 1st class of 1st year and thinking that the Leaving Cert. is absolutely miles into the future.

Quick blink of an eye and it's August 2000 and i'm left wondering where all the years in between went to, and why it seems so far away at the start, but seems to fly by when it's all over.

These are extreme examples, i know, but i get this kind of feeling all the time. With almost everything. You know the way you go on holidays for 2 weeks somewhere and you're all giddy on the plane, but in what seems like almost no time at all, you're back in the queue for taxis outside the airport, befuddled that it went so quickly? That's what i'm talking about.

On a smaller scale, it's the same thing when Friday evening turns into Monday morning and it feels like you've never been off at all.

It also seems like time is getting faster and faster, and it's beginning to drive me bonkers. Ages 9-14 seemed like an eternity. Ages 14-20 seemed like it took half that time, and ages 20-26 like half that time again.

I'm starting to think that am i gonna someday wake up and I'll be 75 years old, with only a couple of years left in me, wondering where all the time went to? It's thoughts like these that make me wanna give up the smokes and the booze and the class A's etc. but then i start thinking, "But that's the sort of lifestyle i enjoy, and if it's gonna be over before i know it, then i might as well enjoy it while i can".

Am I just talkin' out of me hole?..........Is it just me that feels this way sometimes?................Am i having a mid-life crisis at 26 years of age.....(shudder).......?

Anybody?

Edit: Do people in their 30's/40's feel like their 20's/30's flew by?

copacetic · 19-06-2007 11:48pm

certainly yore ma isn't looking as young as she used to with her kit off.

biko · 19-06-2007 11:48pm

I have a theory about this, that time is relative.

No actually, that the more experiences you gather, the more of them will slot into the same experience category and not count at all. Only new experiences really counts and as we get older there are less and less of those. Hence days seem shorter - they become more and more similar to each other.

DonkeyStyle \o/ · 19-06-2007 11:49pm

Yeah I think time is speeding up too.
I propose a lengthy study, at the tax-payers expense of course.

Jumpy · 19-06-2007 11:52pm

copacetic wrote:

certainly yore ma isn't looking as young as she used to with her kit off.

But YORE MA is right now.

I finally lowered myself to a yore ma comment. I feel dirty, but somewhat satisfied. JUST LIKE YORE MA

copacetic · 19-06-2007 11:57pm

Jumpy wrote:

But YORE MA is right now.

I finally lowered myself to a yore ma comment. I feel dirty, but somewhat satisfied. JUST LIKE YORE MA

nice work. it's fun, isn't it?

RoundyMooney · 19-06-2007 11:59pm

I posit that, for a brief moment in June 1999, Yore Ma posts were actually funny.

In other news, I couldn't agree more with you, OP. When my dad told me to enjoy my school years as they would fly by, I told him he had to be joking.

I turned 30 in June, and the last ten years are like a blur.

Moral of the story is, be good to yourself and those around you, and don't get caught up in the nine to five...

Big Ears · 20-06-2007 12:23am

Time just seems to speed up as you get older , I think at one point or another we all think 'Jesus it's been [insert amount of years here] , where did all the time go ? '

WindSock · 20-06-2007 12:32am

biko wrote:

No actually, that the more experiences you gather, the more of them will slot into the same experience category and not count at all. Only new experiences really counts and as we get older there are less and less of those. Hence days seem shorter - they become more and more similar to each other.

I like that theory. It works better than mine. Mine is that we are more aware of time the older we get, and we are keeping our eyes forward to each date and deadline that comes and goes, without stopping much to experience the nowness or whatever. So suddenly it's June 20th 2007, we have entered the second phase of the year :eek:

Happy 2nd Half Year!

ronbyrne2005 · 20-06-2007 10:07am

Without dwelling on the "what is time question" , As you age a certain set period of time(say one year) becomes an ever decreasing propoption of your total experience of being alive. Probably due several effects including some time perceptual hardware in brain and the psycholocial structures that allow us perceive and interact with space-time. Just be gratefull because if there was no time there would be nothing! (unless a timeless/spaceless state/entity exists outside of out everyday universe.

jimi_t · 20-06-2007 10:18am

Doesn't help that it feels like we've gone straight from May to November either :rolleyes:

skywalker · 20-06-2007 10:23am

Definitely agree with OP. Im 27 & while I wouldnt say that school flew by, I definitely feel like the 10 years since has been the blink of an eye.

doubledown · 20-06-2007 11:25am

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the quicker it goes.

True you know!

5starpool · 20-06-2007 11:39am

I turned 30 last year as well, and it seems like no time since I was in college, doing what people do when they were there, yet it is 13 years since I started college, and to the people who are there now I am ancient, yet I don't feel it. Life is weird like that. I think part of it is that so much of our days are on autopilot essentially, and we are not watching the kettle anymore, so to speak.

Also, I think global warming has speeded up our clocks somewhat. I hope our new Green ministers do something about that, probably something in the line of a tax on time speeding emissions or something cunning like that.

copacetic · 20-06-2007 12:11pm

RoundyMooney wrote:

I posit that, for a brief moment in June 1999, Yore Ma posts were actually funny.

see roundy, thinking like this is a sure sign you are getting old!

thelordofcheese · 20-06-2007 12:17pm

ronbyrne2005 wrote:

Without dwelling on the "what is time question" , As you age a certain set period of time(say one year) becomes an ever decreasing propoption of your total experience of being alive. Probably due several effects including some time perceptual hardware in brain and the psycholocial structures that allow us perceive and interact with space-time. Just be gratefull because if there was no time there would be nothing! (unless a timeless/spaceless state/entity exists outside of out everyday universe.

[Doctor Who]
Well...people assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect... but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly...timey-wimey...stuff.
[/Doctor Who]

Von Manstein · 20-06-2007 12:52pm

I remember reading in the Economist about a report that was done into the 'pace of life' in the countries of the world. Switzerland was number 1 and Ireland was number 2 (or possibly the other way around). Number 3 was Germany. Some countries just have a faster pace of life at the end of the day.

jester77 · 20-06-2007 1:39pm

$hifty wrote:

Edit: Do people in their 30's/40's feel like their 20's/30's flew by?

Exact same here $hifty. We're around the same age as those dates are the same for me. Summers used to last forever when you were a kid but now everything just flies by. Can't believe how fast the xmas's come around :eek:

But the one good thing I find is that at least pay day comes so fast even if its a whole month away!

Caliden · 20-06-2007 2:46pm

The first reply in this thread took me back in time. A time when the internet was ridden with idiots.

boneless · 20-06-2007 3:47pm

We are all travelling towards the ultimate end at the rate of 24 hours per diem.... it does seem to speed up though, towards the end... jaysus, I sound like an old fella now...

MooseJam · 20-06-2007 3:52pm

$hifty wrote:

It also seems like time is getting faster and faster, and it's beginning to drive me bonkers. Ages 9-14 seemed like an eternity. Ages 14-20 seemed like it took half that time, and ages 20-26 like half that time again.

dude it's a well known phenomenon, theres even poems about it

When as a child I laughed and wept,
Time crept.
When as a youth I waxed more bold,
Time strolled.
When I became a full-grown man,
Time RAN.
When older still I daily grew,
Time FLEW.
Soon I shall find, in passing on,
Time gone.

lady_j · 20-06-2007 4:23pm

I'm having my mid-life at 24. My first year out of college has flown by. Stupid 9-5 all days are the same! I seriously go home and think what did I do today? Going travelling to escape the 9-5- but no idea what I'll do when I come back :eek: At what point do people figure out what they want to do with their lives !!!

I seriously miss summer holidays! Crap jobs dont seem so bad when they're for three months!

imeatingchips · 20-06-2007 4:23pm

Funny I should come across this right now mr shifty. only this morn I was thinking exactly the same thing and it hit me like a tonne of bricks!

I swore to myself there and then that I was going to make the time go slower and thought maybe of the following changes might work:

Play less poker
Watch less telly
Dont play that deadly pool game on my phone anytime I'm taking a crap or sitting on a train or otherwise have a free 2 minutes
Dont go on a bender every weekend
etc, you get the point

Thought maybe I was being occupied and entertained too much and it was just soaking the time up.

I thought that might help but reading this now maybe it won't! Maybe there's nowt that can be done cos it's one inescapable things like tax & death!

shyte......

lsd FTW!!

Jigsaw · 20-06-2007 4:37pm

This is an utterly depressing thread because I feel exactly the same.

It feels especially bad if I go out on a mid week feed of beer. Next morning with eyes like pissholes, greasy hair and doing kebab/Guinness farts and burps walking down the street thinking about when I was school I had so much potential, world was my oyster, I was in control of my destiny, I was fit and healthy and strong and smart.

I then wonder where the years have gone from when I was in school and how they could have passed so quickly and I wonder will future years pass just as quickly or even more quickly. Tis hateful.

Red Hand · 20-06-2007 4:47pm

biko wrote:

I have a theory about this, that time is relative.

No actually, that the more experiences you gather, the more of them will slot into the same experience category and not count at all. Only new experiences really counts and as we get older there are less and less of those. Hence days seem shorter - they become more and more similar to each other.

Good post-I'd agree with that. I guess you could follow that on in a similiar way with space. When you're a certain size, the world seems endless, not only in terms of size, but of possibilities, but then it shrinks as you get bigger.

So, combining time with space, my world and experience will consist of my bed in an old folks home when 75. Cool!:)

This thread is soooo depressing.

Smellyirishman · 20-06-2007 7:47pm

Outta my way old fogies; I'm in the springtime of my youth.

20-06-2007 8:26pm

OP you need to relax.

J.S. Pill · 21-06-2007 12:09am

I seem to be caught in some sort of weird temporal vortex where time seems to be going backwards.

I'm 25 now but I earn less money than I did two years ago, I have less responsibilities than I did 3 years ago and my hair is crazier than 5 years ago.

I can't wait till my secondary school reunion...

jhegarty · 21-06-2007 12:14am

Deleted User wrote:

OP you need to relax.

no the OP needs to write a book

Lazare · 21-06-2007 12:21am

Jigsaw wrote:

This is an utterly depressing thread because I feel exactly the same.

It feels especially bad if I go out on a mid week feed of beer. Next morning with eyes like pissholes, greasy hair and doing kebab/Guinness farts and burps walking down the street thinking about when I was school I had so much potential, world was my oyster, I was in control of my destiny, I was fit and healthy and strong and smart.

I then wonder where the years have gone from when I was in school and how they could have passed so quickly and I wonder will future years pass just as quickly or even more quickly. Tis hateful.

Kill me now

demanufactured · 24-06-2007 2:40am

But seriously, Trust me on the sunscreen.........

SimpleSam06 · 24-06-2007 8:22am

descry wrote:

At what point do people figure out what they want to do with their lives !!!

Generally when they are given no other choice.

What you should do if you feel like most of the posters here is focus on new ways to pass the time, ways which add to the sum of you; learn a new skill, a new language. Figure out where you want to be, where you are now, and the steps between the two positions. Take up a sport or a craft, travel to places not just for the experience but for the opportunities, and I don't mean the well trodden paths of Australia or the US.

We have a fairly priveleged position in this country, and we should be using it to taste life to the full.

Earthhorse · 24-06-2007 10:06am

J.S. Pill wrote:

I can't wait till my secondary school reunion...

You'll probably show up in the uniform.

monkeyfudge · 24-06-2007 11:59am

Your perception of time is all down to your memory of it.

If you do the same thing every day and meet the same friends every week then no highlights will jump out in your memory so it will all just bleed together and it will seem like the years have flown by.

The same with a holiday... if you feel it's over all too quickly, it's probably because you just sat in a deck chair all week or obliterated memories with booze.

I'm almost 30 now and 20 seems like an eternity away when I think of all that I've done, all the knowledge I've acquired, all the places I've been and all the people who have come and gone in my life.

StupidLikeAFox · 24-06-2007 2:05pm

doubledown wrote:

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the quicker it goes.

True you know!

Thats because on the outside the area of the outer layer is bigger than the area of the inner layer or circumference or whatever. Not assed trying to explain it. Blah blah blah

Anyway, would anyone like to live forever?

Lazare · 24-06-2007 2:14pm

ColHol wrote:

Thats because on the outside the area of the outer layer is bigger than the area of the inner layer or circumference or whatever. Not assed trying to explain it. Blah blah blah

Are you serious? I hope not.

Thrill · 24-06-2007 2:15pm

ColHol wrote:

Anyway, would anyone like to live forever?

Live forever or live until humanity ceases to exist?

Given a choice it would be the latter as i wouldn't want to be alone on this planet once it becomes incapable of supporting life.

Forever would be too much time imo.

StupidLikeAFox · 24-06-2007 4:33pm

Lazare wrote:

Are you serious? I hope not.

__________
I..._____...I
I...I.......I..I
I...I____I...I
I_________I

Imagine thats a simplified toilet roll. The inner circles dont have as much of a surface area on them as the outer circles. Therefore when ya have a big roll and take a couple of the sheets off it doesnt make a dent in the thickness of it. But as ya get closer to the end the same few will make it significantly thinner, and hence the toilet roll will appear to be disappearing faster near the end than it did at the start and before ya know it your up **** creek without any toilet paper!

Lazare · 24-06-2007 5:36pm

ColHol wrote:

__________
I..._____...I
I...I.......I..I
I...I____I...I
I_________I

Imagine thats a simplified toilet roll. The inner circles dont have as much of a surface area on them as the outer circles. Therefore when ya have a big roll and take a couple of the sheets off it doesnt make a dent in the thickness of it. But as ya get closer to the end the same few will make it significantly thinner, and hence the toilet roll will appear to be disappearing faster near the end than it did at the start and before ya know it your up **** creek without any toilet paper!

LOL.

Tbh, it doesn't take a double digit IQ to work that out, the guy was using a roll of toilet paper as a metaphor for life. It's clever and simple, did you honestly feel there was a need to explain it?

mike65 · 24-06-2007 5:44pm

"Time is an illusion, at lunch-time doubly so."

I have no idea what Ford Prefect really meant by that. Just thought I'd mention it

.

The reason time appears to fly past ever quicker is proberly down to our ever filling memory bank, when young we have no past but lots of future and little baggage to haul around, as we experience life we acumulate memories which we unwittingly keep refering to, this fills our subconcious the result being the ever-faster flight of time as we know whats coming next all the time as we've done it before - every day.

If we could somehow live very different lives at regular intervals the decades of "routine exisitance" would'nt fill our memories and we would keep looking forwards rather than back and our lives would seem to be fuller and so longer.

The problem is that we can pretty much second guess 95% of our lives on an everyday basis.

I could be wrong though.

Mike.

shane86 · 24-06-2007 8:15pm

Im only approaching 21 and even Im mournful. The best summer was 2004, the year i left school, thinking back it was Thursday to Sunday nothing but beer, clubs, pubs, birds and house parties, every night there seemed to be somethin on and all this sustained on no more than 60 euro, smuggling naggins into the club as the bouncers stared at the fake ID and you waited to see if it passed. Comin home from field drinking sessions and bonfires at 6 in the morning, locked as **** the sun gradually coming up and the birds starting to sing, my first music festival, Wu Tang tearin it down, Underoworld, Felix Da Housecat, my first time ever on the, eh, thing that dance music was built on that was a movement in the early 90s (

), the first, last, ony and best free house party i threw that was pretty much word for word the lyrics of Snoop Doggs Gin and Juice......them were the days

I dunno, college is over, im in work, there just doesnt seem to be the same buzz there was that summer. 2005 was great too, but 06 was ****e and this summer, well, the weather hasnt exactly cobtributed over the last fortnight. Its like people on the rave scene in the early 90s say, the atmosphere from that time just cant be brought back. Im the same, its as if we cant recreate the buzz f summer 04

Dudess · 24-06-2007 8:29pm

I started getting freaked out about how quickly time was going when I was 21 too. Well, it gets worse. Sorry.
I'm eight years older than you. Imagine what it's like for a 50-year-old. Truly depressing... if you let it depress you. Bottom line: there isn't a single thing you can do about it, so just accept it and make the most of now.

The passage of time

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