To think that life is so short?

[springloves]

I'm only in my mid twenties but I feel like over the last few years I've realised how short life is and how quickly time goes. I'm now the age my parents were when they had me, it just feels weird how quickly life cycles through. It feels like some cruel secret that has been kept from me, how quickly life goes. I can't believe it's 2021 and 2011 was 10 years ago... It felt like one minute my age group were immature, reckless university students and now they're stable adults with careers buying houses and getting engaged.

I know it's the longest thing we will ever experience but it still feels so short and goes by so quickly.

I’m in my early 30s and I feel the exact same. It actually scares me and it’s something I think and worry about often.

Yeah this terrifies me. I have anxiety which I take medication for. I do wonder how much of my anxiety comes from not doing enough or making the most of things. It's been especially hard over the past year as I feel like I'm stagnating and surviving.

Gather ye Rose-buds while ye may
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to day,
To morrow will be dying
etc etc

Robert Herrick wrote that in 1648 when life really was short for many people. The message remains - make the most of whatever time you've got!

I will be 40 this year and I'm not sure how I'm here already.

Wait until you’re my age! Carpe diem!

I'm in my late 20s and I feel the exact same OP. A few things have happened recently that have really made me see how fast time has flown since I was at uni and to be quite honest, its frightening.

I feel like I'm having a quarter life (1/3 life!?) crisis

I feel like this a bit recently. I’m only late 20s and I’m not sure if this is just bad luck or what happens naturally with age but I feel like I know of quite a few people with either serious illness or who have died (and not of COVID)

Three people my age who I’d call acquaintances have been diagnosed with cancer and another friend has just lost her husband to a brain tumour. Always seems to be the least deserving people as well

I heard this being talked about on a podcast (don't click if you are feeling anxious about the shortness of life)
It's fascinating and terrifying at the same time. it comes ready filled out with where you are so far...

4kweeks.com/products/poster?gclid=CjwKCAiAm-2BBhANEiwAe7eyFEDlGPc0v6DY36veFrrIdi5i-x_06e8nvUsCHUuvCBIA5NvaCuZoKhoCWywQAvD_BwE

I will be 69 soon. Where has all that time gone? What have I done with it? Some things I am glad I did, some things I regret. My old headmistress used to often talk/warn about 'the misuse of time which can never come back'. Just about the only wise advice I ever received at school. I wish I had always acted upon it.

It is short, but it’s also the longest thing you experience!

I always thought my teachers were having their revenge on us as students, when they got us to sing 'those were the days my friend, we never thought they'd end, for we were young and sure to have our day. . .

I'm sorry to tell you it speeds up the older you get

@campion

Gather ye Rose-buds while ye may Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to day, To morrow will be dying etc etc

Robert Herrick wrote that in 1648 when life really was short for many people. The message remains - make the most of whatever time you've got!

That’s lovely ❤️

I have to say I spent the first 25 or so years of my life deeply unhappy. Since that fog has lifted, I’ve really realised the ‘beauty of life’ (sorry that sounds so corny) and how truly amazing everything is. I regularly have moments of ‘wow’, for example today I was holding my toddler and looking out the window. I looked at the sun and thought, I’m staring at a star which has been burning consistently for millions of years! It’s the same sun that shone on my parents when they were kids, and my grandparents, and now my own child... cheesy stuff, but we are a just a moment in time, and when you make peace with it it’s actually amazing.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like this!

I think part of my problem is I like to linger and dawdle in phases of life, I don't like change or progressing which means I often feel a little stagnant.

@campion - I love that, thank you for sharing.

@Wondermule Your post made me tear up, what a beautiful sentiment about the sun. I hope I get to experience the feeling of that fog lifting.

That’s beautiful @Wondermule.

I’m 35 and can’t believe how I came to be this old!! I’m sure I was 25 just the other day.

It does scare me how fast it’s all going. I still feel really young, but in two years dd1 will be off to uni! Crazy!

Exactly. I am almost 40 and it seems two mins ago I was early 20s. You really should enjoy your twenties op, it goes far far too quickly, embrace your youth! 😂

Someone once told me life is like a toilet roll, the closer you are to the end the quicker it goes by

The last few years since I have been in my 40s I have had an increasingly strong sense of the passage of time. Particularly in relation to things like telling my kids about my childhood - we might drive by a big strip mall in a busy area and I will remember when it was a chocolate factory on the outskirts of town. Or the fact that my grandparents and all of their siblings have now died in the past few years, and my parents generation are now elderly - my siblings and cousins are the adults sitting around the lake watching the kids swim.

I saw a meme the other day about the show The Wonder Years, which I watched when it was being made.

It pointed out that at the time, the narrator of the show was looking back at a childhood that had been 20 years before, in 1969. And that a similar show today would be looking back to.... 2001.

I also think that this past year has made us all examine our lives - and with that our mortality - a little more than we might have done usually in more 'normal' times. I think about life/dying a lot (in healthy ways, I might add). I think if anything, once this period is over one of my aims will be to not waste time.....

Maybe get some more varied friends doing different types of things? For comparison, in our mid-20s we were all still postgraduate students engaged on research degrees in various fields, and having a wonderful time. There’s no immutable law that says your mid-20s need to be some kind of yawnfest of mortgages and babies — it sounds a bit prematurely middle-aged to me. Obviously, if you like it, knock yourself out.

Awww OP. There is also the Pale Blue Dot which is a short clip about the insignificance of our existence. Never fails to bring tears to my eyes, not exactly in a bad way though;

Especially because each year is a smaller fraction of our lives, 1 year for a toddler is 1/3 of their whole existence, whereas for many of us, that 1/3 may be a decade or two. I love the sun PP, and I often think the same, when looking at the stars and thinking of the infinite universe. Our insignificance can actually feel really comforting, we're like little ants scurrying round and building our buildings, when none of it really matters too much in the grand scheme of things. We are alive closer to the T-Rex than the T-Rex was to the Stegosaurus. Staggering.

Time passes so quickly. I try and live in the moment and appreciate what I have right now because I’ll never be this young again and I may lose what I love and beg to be back in this moment where I’m here with them. Kids make time disappear. I was young (ger) when I had them and when they are my age, I’ll be old. It seems a little unfair. But then I think of the people I’ve known, and the ones who’ve left already who died as kids and young adults, there’s a lot to be grateful for. Every day is a gift. Drink in the experience and it’ll feel longer. Time flies when you’re older as the brain doesn’t keep most of the information you see in a day, so give it lots to remember :)

Losing my parents made this come into focus much more sharply for me. My kids will be mourning me one day (well I hope they will mourn me ).
I get scared about it, but mainly scared of being vulnerable and losing my independence and dignity. I’m hoping assisted dying becomes legal.