When my alarm goes off at 8:45 a.m. on Friday, it’s not tiredness that hits me nor relief for the end of the week, but, instead, it’s always confusion. How is it that time seems to move so fast that it surpasses my consciousness? Where do the weeks go?
When I graduated high school, everyone warned me about how quickly time begins to move once you enter the college realm, but I never bothered to take it seriously. Now, as I begin my eighth month here at UC Berkeley, I can say with the utmost certainty that they were correct.
It wasn’t that I was expecting time to drone on when I moved here, but rather that I was continually shocked about how rapidly things move when you’re busy. In high school, there was a false sense of busyness in attending school for six to eight hours a day. I always felt as though my schedule was packed, when in reality, things were simpler and laid out for me. My schedule and world existed on other people’s terms, whether that be my parents, teachers, or peers. Essentially, I planned my activities based on what others were doing.
However, in college, my schedule is entirely my own. I decide to fill my days with things of my choosing; it’s my choice if I participate in extracurriculars, decide to put effort into school, or even go to class.
It was only when I got to college that I discovered the idea of mental business. This self-made term explains the feeling of trying to organize and complete the tasks that I’ve chosen for myself; these responsibilities range from completing schoolwork to following through with plans I’ve made for the weekend. When your mind becomes a planner that’s constantly scribbling down and crossing off things, it’s impossible to allow for time to stand still.
This is why I feel like time has slipped out from under me this year — I’m so enjoyably busy that I don’t have the opportunity to process the days passing. I’m fortunate enough to not only have found people who make every day exciting but activities that make being busy something I look forward to. I think that there’s oftentimes a stigma attached to being so busy that you forget to live in the moment; however after being at college, I’ve learned that this isn’t necessarily true.
Living in the moment isn’t always something that you realize you’re doing — it’s not always a pause in your day when you look around and think to yourself I’m going to remember this day and moment for years to come. No, it can also happen without you processing it, when you fall asleep after a long week and realize how distractedly content you’d spent those seven days.
“This is why I feel like time has slipped out from under me this year — I’m so enjoyably busy that I don’t have the opportunity to process the days passing.”
Sloane Moriarty
So, although I’m still an inexperienced freshman learning about the concept of time, I like to think that its passing shouldn’t be something you mourn but instead something that you celebrate.