[heading size=”16″ margin=”10″]Time: the silent, thievish king of life[/heading] Joanne Rowling, or more commonly known as JK Rowling, was born in Yates, England in July 1965. One of the most well known rags-to-riches story, Rowling spent a period of her life sacrificing her own meals to make sure her daughter had enough to eat. It was during this time that Rowling wrote first novel in the beloved Harry Potter series. Now a millionaire, Rowling has a charitable trust, Volant, and is the founder of Lumos, a charity that works to improve the lives of disadvantaged children. Rowling is also the recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, France’s Légion d’Honneur and the Hans Christian Andersen LIterature Award. Currently, Rowling lives in Edinburgh with her husband and three children.
When it comes down to the technicalities, time is a concept created by humans to make sense and record the chronological order of events. The sundial, the clock and all other forms of telling time were born from the ingenuity of man. It’s amazing and frightening at the same time to see how we have become slaves to our own creation.
There’s a constant battle over the speed at which our lives move forward; time is either too slow or too fast for our taste. Fast-approaching deadlines warrant wishes for prolonged seconds and anticipation unsuccessfully tempts time to flow just a bit faster. Sometimes, there’s a golden period in our lives in which we’re perfectly content with where we are and the speed at which time draws us into the future. We’ve come to define our entire existence, both macro and micro, on time.
As I’m beginning to discover myself and draw out the foundation of my principles, morals and very existence, I feel the chains of time around my mind. They warp my goals and focus and wrap around my chest, inciting a fit of nervousness or agitation at the mere thought of tomorrow’s schedule. For over sixteen years of my life, I’ve been ruled by time. This concept that was meant to establish order and make sense of the universe has conditioned me to race against it rather than to flow besides it.
In my life, there’s a constant shortage of time. I want to do so many things and I have to do so many things. It becomes a battle of being responsible over being carefree, one that more often than not grants responsibility the victory.
I no longer wake up and chase the sunrise or watch the snowflakes dance on their descent. I don’t allow myself the experience of being fully absorbed in the ambiance of a moment or a room, void of any clattering thoughts of tomorrow’s calls. I’ve come to fill every waking second of my life with something that has a purpose of improving my future.
Time is no longer for absorbing the energy of the universe, but is instead an investment for my happiness. The colossal failure in that way of living is it creates a cycle of continual sacrifices for a future that is always out of reach.
I want to be able to follow the path of light for a day without feeling like I’ve wasted that day. I want to sit on my couch and just feel the energy around me without feeling the tug of reading assignments and textbook work. I want to close my eyes and listen to the buzzing life around me without my parents reminding me of all the tasks I must accomplish. I want to live without feeling the need to fill my time with textbook knowledge-based experiences.
Yes, we do need a purpose in life to work for, but we should also hold the practice of spending a part of everyday learning and feeling the soul of the universe rather than confining our own souls into a schedule. Each living organism on Earth should be able to let go of the constraints of time and to just lose their soul in the natural flow of the heart and mind. We’ve become fools preoccupied by superficial desires and glittering facades of our futures, but with an awakened conscience, we can begin to loosen and release the shackles of time.
By Alice Yu
art by Maddy Mueller