An Ode To Youth

Here is a celebration of the life that we should live, to the time that will pass regardless.

- WORDS KELLY LEWI

TIME IS AN ABSOLUTE PARAMETER measured by human beings. I always thought the idea of people measuring an abstract concept to be perplexing. As if life is not difficult enough in this era, everything is now counted in a currency nobody can buy nor trade. The time needed to complete tasks, to eat, sleep, and live, and to finish this article within deadline whilst still holding onto my sanity by its last ropes. Time is essential, but I never seem to have enough of it.

On my birthday last month, I reflected on my seemingly long yet short life. In 24 years, what have I accomplished? I used to believe that I would have done so much by now. At eight, I thought I would become a monk once I turned 18, because my naïve self had thought that living a life full of sinful pleasures on borrowed time was meaningless. At 13, I thought I would be a renowned researcher discovering the cure for lung cancer because my grandfather had recently passed from it. At 17, I thought I would be married by 25, have children by 28, and live the rest of my time in a blissful bubble. Then, at 23, I thought of leaving everything behind again and restarting my life quietly in another country where nobody knows my name.

Twenty-four years sounds like a lot of time: an equivalent of 8,760 days, or 210,240 hours, or millions of minutes. Yet in the grand scheme of time, it is but a measly number. In the end, all that time was not enough, because to date I have accomplished none of those wishful dreams.