“The trouble is, you think you have time.” A simple quote from Buddha that will stick with me forever. I have read this quote over a hundred times, I have written it and lived it. It practically serves as a basic representation of my life. This is because I believe that time itself is a concept that is easily mistaken as a measurement. It can be separated into three parts; the past, the present, and the future. Within these subdivisions I have experienced happiness and sadness, excitement and apathy, success and failure. It comes and goes so fast that I often forget to appreciate what time has given me. Consequently, it is not until after the fact that I realize how significant the essence of time was within these moments.

“The trouble is, you think you have time.” Between balancing school, work, activities, friends, and family I soon realized the truth; time always manages to slip away. Before I knew it, I was packing up my things, moving into a dorm in a new city, and beginning my freshman year of college. At 18 years old and with the optimism of a young child in a new environment, I believed that I had all the time in the world. Three years later, I sit here wondering how time is capable of moving so fast. Or better yet, how I managed to let it go by so quickly.

Time is a sneaky subject, much like life is. It tricks you into believing that time will always be there for you, but in reality, there is never enough time. I have spent so much time wanting, searching, and wishing that I tend to forget what is really important. I can not even begin to imagine all of the moments I have let slip through my fingers because I was too busy worrying about what was going on next. That it is why it is important to stop every once in awhile and appreciate the things around us. Or as my favorite comic, Calvin and Hobbes puts it, “If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.”

“The trouble is, you think you have time.” Because soon enough I came to learn that time is not that ticking clock in the back of the classroom. Time is not a number or a countdown. Rather, time is a concept that everyone, including myself, takes for granted. It is not until afterwards that the one minute wasted becomes significant. And no matter how hard I have tried, time is just something I can never have enough.