Make the Most of Every Moment
College has been a hot topic in our house. Two weeks ago, we moved TJ, our oldest, into the freshmen dorm at Elon University. He arrived well before the bulk of students so he could begin his new position as a videographer for the football team and its preseason camp. As we situated his dorm room with the stuff we’d carted up a flight of stairs, the seven-year-old, Cort, asked in a matter-of-fact voice, “When do I get to live here?”
After everyone’s laughter faded, the inside of my chest twisted as I envisioned that future moment hurtling toward me like a white-hot meteor carving up the night sky. I hesitated to blink my eyes, fearing I’d open them to find it was Cort we had dropped off instead of TJ because it feels like it was only yesterday that TJ was seven.
Time’s ethereal quality derailed me again this weekend as we all traveled to Greenville, NC, home to East Carolina University, where I graduated years ago. My wife had been asked to deliver a sample class to an area fitness center that was considering bringing on an additional program. Once I’d dropped her off on Saturday morning, I took the two younger boys around the campus to show them my alma mater. TJ’s new adventure had heightened their interest in college.
As we watched the teenagers move into the old dorm I’d lived in as a freshman, it hit me I’d been doing the same thing precisely twenty-five years ago. At least, that’s the answer I came up with when I subtracted the year I’d graduated high school from the current year. How could that be right? It felt like it was less than ten years ago. What happened to the time in between? I don’t feel any different in body than that 18-year-old who moved in so long ago. But I’m wiser now, and if I could have that time again, I would try more. Do more. Live more.
I cringed more often these days because time has accelerated over the years, something most people in their forties and beyond will verify happens in disturbing surges, each one faster than the last. It’s alarming how the future rushes toward you when you barely pay attention. Nothing halts its building momentum. But there is something that can ease the brutal reality that the time you have left speeds by faster and faster the older you get:
Make the most of every moment.
