Sunday, January 11, 2009


Time flies.

Just one hour ago, I was lying in my bed reading a Sabrina book (I haven't bought a new book since Brisingr, so bear with me).

Just one day ago, I was at the Edufair in KLCC with Tao.

Just one week ago, I was returning home from Genting Highlands with my family.

Just one month ago, I was in Adelaide, checking out UniSA.

Just one year ago, I was beginning my Foundation in Communications course.

Time flies.

Time flies so fast that you don't even realize it's gone, until in a sudden moment of introspection, you stop, look around, and think, 'Where has the time gone?' And that's the truth. Time waits for no man. You may mope around for days, weeks, months, years, over a breakup, and expect everyone to pity you, but eventually, people have to move on. Things have to change, otherwise if the world around you changes, and you don't change, you'll be swept away. Even rocks in the sea get worn smooth by the crashing waves, and eventually become the sand on the seabed.

Time flies so fast that one day, you're looking at your little brother or sister, and suddenly realize that he/she isn't just the kid who used to whine and cry and beg to tag along with you, to join you in your 'big boy/big girl' games any more. Your little brother or sister has suddenly matured into a young man, or a young woman. Suddenly they start having crushes, start experiencing heartbreak, start going out with friends, and you watch and you want to protect them from what you've already been through, but them being them, as we were at their age, of course they don't listen. And suddenly, you start being able to have heart-to-heart conversations with them (which is more than a little bit odd) and you realize that suddenly, they're not those stupid annoying brats any more.

"Patience is a virtue." How odd that it should come from a little brother.

Time flies so fast that you learn to take nothing for granted. As new arrivals come, old timers must depart to make room in your life. You learn how to say goodbye, even though you try hard, too hard, to cling on to something that you know will drift away. Friendships, relationships, even life and death. If it is time, it is time. I don't know about heaven and hell and such, but the base idea is: Good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell, end of story. I am not particularly religious but I'm fairly certain I got the basic principle right. The only God I trust in is Fate. Everything is fated to be a way, and if it is your fate, it is your fate. Learn to accept it, learn to accept that the one who is gone has left from your life, but will always be in your heart - as long as you remember. Do not mourn the ones who are gone...appreciate the ones that are still here. Smile and be polite to your grandparents, and stop arguing with your own parents, whose hair grow whiter day by day even though they use dye to cover it up. Nothing can ever halt the progress of time, and while you have today, why put off something till tomorrow when you may not have it?

"The past is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today...today is a gift." - Master Ooguay

Time flies so fast that you don't even realize what it's done to you until you look in the mirror, and go, "Wow. Is that me?" Think back to one year ago, five years ago, ten years ago. Did you ever dream that you would turn out this way? Did you ever have dreams when you were young, that now seem silly to you, all grown up? Well, in another ten years you'll look back -again- and laugh to yourself at how silly you are now. Time brings change, and it affects -all- of us, whether you like it or not. Change is good, in a way..no matter how much you reminisce about 'the old days', without change, everything would always be the same. Then there wouldn't be any 'old days', because every day would be the same, and how boring would that be?

Time flies so fast, you wonder where you can store all the memories. Pictures, snapshots, blog posts, we do all this so that we have a little piece of history to remind us of the good times, the bad times, the joyful times, the sad times. All of this makes up a little bit of who we are, and without them, we wouldn't have an identity. Just the first 18 years of our lives, and already people are agonizing about friendships falling apart, relationships breaking because one of the pair has to go overseas, etcetera.

One thing I really admire about my dad is that he keeps contact with his old -high school- friends. When we were in Melbourne, he met up with his three friends from high school, and they were talking and laughing and joking like no time had passed. We even went to the house of one of them, and later all had dinner together before another uncle dropped us off at the airport. The way they got along, they might as well have been neighbours all their life.

Except Dad hadn't seen/talked to them for about 20 years now.

Don't you wish you had that kind of friendship? Don't you want friends now, who after decades of limited/no contact, you can just give a ring, and talk as if you were in high school again? Don't you want someone you can call on when you need help? Don't you want to grow with someone, to change with someone? So many people are afraid of change, but I say: embrace it. Change will happen anyway. Why try to remain static in a world that is like fluid - always shifting? Those who are meant to be with you on your life journey will always have your back, no matter what. Those who you need to work at hard to keep, are probably more trouble than they're worth anyway. That doesn't mean to say friendships and relationships don't need maintenance, but more than anything they should be a source of happiness and support, not despair and unhappiness.

Don't be afraid to -try-. Do let others influence what you think and do, if they are good influences, but don't let their influence ultimately become your decision. If you take that step, take it only because it feels right to -you-. You don't have to answer to anybody else..it's your life, and only you know how to live it. Others are good at giving you advice because, after all, it's not their life, and they don't know how you feel, how you think. Don't spend the rest of your life thinking, 'What if I'd done this? Would it have been better? What if I'd tried that?' If you want to, do it, don't second guess yourself.

The most important thing is to be able to listen to your heart. To be able to change, externally, mature, grow, go with the flow, but at the core, you still know who you are. Rejoice in that you have today, stop regretting the past and worry not about the future, for it has yet to be shaped.

"To think about what could have been is to poison the happiness we already have." - Saphira

After all, time flies.