This I Believe

We have Time

All of my life I have heard people say that life is short, but I do not agree. I have been on this earth for only seventeen years, but that has seemed like an eternity to me. I look ahead as far as I can, and my future looks vague to me. My core belief, therefore, is that life is the longest thing a person ever does, so there is always time for a person to stop and smell the flowers.

When I was younger, I never gave any thought to my future. I always seemed to have all the time in the world. It has not changed much since then; I still have a whole lot of free time; in fact, it is amazing just how much time I spend doing nothing. I see this mostly during the summer, when the days just drag on at a snail’s pace until every minute is a weariness, and I long for something to be supplied for me to occupy my fried brain. It has been a while since I did something really exciting, and sometimes I find myself wondering what I would do if space aliens suddenly invaded, or a volcano suddenly erupted in the middle of central Illinois. If life is so short, why am I so bored all the time? I get done with my work fairly quickly, and then…well that is the hard part.

Life is long, and there is plenty of time for us to accomplish what we want to in our lifetime. There is no need to hurry to meet any sort of destiny or goal. If you accomplish everything early, what will you do next? If you are someone who worries about his or her future, then don’t worry so much. There is plenty of time to figure out which college to go to and what career to choose. If you are my age, then you still have about seventy long years left to accomplish your goals.