"How are you doing? It's been over 20 years...."
Phew, I remember vividly when I was much younger, when two grown-ups will bump into each other, laugh and make a statement like that. Sometimes I'd overhear it in the midst of a carousal of many old men.
Maybe I'd be watching a cartoon. Next thing, the cartoon character would make an exclamation such as; "I've been doing this for over 20 years." In my mind, I'd be like, "Woah, 20 years. That's a long long time. Why is time running slow?" It was enigmatic for me.
There were also times where our primary school teacher will tell us to rest our heads on the table during the long break of the regular school day. She would notice our rather childish rebellion– in the sense that we would be talking to each other and playing– and exclaim; "You'd better rest your heads now. When you grow up, you won't be able to rest your heads." What a caveat. Of course, in my mind I'd be thinking, "I can't wait to grow up." I didn't like resting my head. I wanted to play all day "biko!"
The slowest times of my life were my primary school days. It was the same ol' routine everyday and, man, did I hate it. Of course some teachers might have thought that I liked coming to school, because I was brilliant. That couldn't be further from the truth. I didn't like primary school that much.
I also remember when I was about to turn 13. I literally couldn't wait. I wanted to become a teenager so badly.
I'm almost 18 now.
I believe the motivation to write this post came to me because the magnitude of my thoughts rose to a crescendo. Thoughts of what, you may ask? The future, the past and now.
Isn't it puzzling?
Isn't it just strange how time seems to run out faster as we get older?
It's ironic. It's said that time flies when you're having fun. I had a lot of fun when I was a kid and a day seemed like forever. I rarely have fun now but it's speeding up. This has been the quickest year of my life so far. Can you imagine? I'll even soon become #OBIdient and vote whereas it seemed like the time for that will never come. Not just that, so much more.
I wake up by five everyday and still leave a lot of tasks unfinished at the end of the day.
I can't rest my head anymore like I used to when I was forced.
Funny thing is, I still can't say "...over 20 years."
More funny than not, I don't want to get there quickly anymore.