“Time waits for nobody.” That's what I used to hear around my house growing up. Before I was old enough to go to school I could lie down in the driveway and watch a colony of ants going back and forth for hours on a sunny afternoon. The days went on forever each one an adventure. Time was not much of an issue. Summer holidays lasted forever while I was in primary school. Long summer holidays filled with all kinds of things to do to the point that I would wear them out and become bored and wonder when life would get exciting again. I'd actually look forward to going back to school.

Now I am older, and the holidays are way too short. Life is going so fast one can hardly keep up. Time waits for no one. There doesn't seem to be enough of it. Why does it go so much faster than it use to? Isn't time constant? It doesn't feel like it is. This perplexed me and wanted an answer for it.

I now have a theory for it. I understand why time goes so much faster than when we were younger. Consider this; on your first birthday, that year of your life represents one hundred percent of your life, your entire life. Then another whole lifetime passes and you finally turn two. That second year is one of tremendous growth and learning. Now you are walking and talking, and the world is expanding. You are discovering life outside and it's huge. This second year represents fifty percent of your entire life. Another year and you turn three and that year is a third of an entire lifetime. You are growing stronger and you have enough energy to keep up, at least until you drop at the end of the day exhausted but satisfied. Tomorrow is no problem, you'll do it again.

Now you are much older, perhaps you are forty. That last year was only a fortieth of your life, a thin slice, a much smaller portion. You are still trying to fill it with as much as you can or life itself demands you to overflow the brim with activity. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, birthdays, mother and fathers’ day, anniversaries, they all seem like they were just here and here they are again. Time is going so much faster.

What about when you turn ninety, a ninetieth fraction of a life, so much smaller than a half or a third, or even a fortieth. The world screams by faster than you can keep up with it. You don't go so fast yourself anymore, but time doesn't seem to have the same problem as you do. It's got as much energy as it did when you were one. How can you possibly keep up?

Yes time goes faster now than when we were younger. Well maybe it just seems so but I understand it now.