"Be The Change You Want To See In The World"
Update From Samantha, 2015-16 Outbound Exchange Student
The following is a blog post by Samantha, a 2015-2016 outbound exchange student in Thailand and sponsored by the Rotary Club of Racine.
THE PASSAGE OF TIME
Throughout my entire four years of high school, I had cello lessons every Wednesday. I would grab my cello, drive to my teacher’s house, lug the heavy instrument up a small flight of stairs, and play for a half hour with my teacher. This was my routine. This routine kept me grounded and gave me stability, as all routine does, but it also was useful as a measurement of time passing.
Time is such a strange thing. As humans, we mark the passing of time to give us the illusion of control over it, but truly, we cannot control the passing time. Metaphorically, the clock keeps turning whether we like or not, and literally, if we turn the clock off, time keeps passing. Turning off the clock doesn’t pause the world. The older I get, the more keenly aware this fact seems to me. For example, as the last weeks of my summer were rolling to a close, and it was time for me to say goodbye to everyone before I headed off to Thailand, I wanted to stop the clock and savor those moments for just a little longer than I had, but, inevitably, I could not stop time. Those moments seemed to go faster than any before, although I realize the impossibility of a time going faster than one second at a time. Moreover, there truly are no short weeks. There are no quick minutes. That test didn’t take up the longest hour of your life; it was just an hour. Logically, I know this. I understand that time is a social construct, and I know that one week is not truly any shorter or longer than the next, yet somehow it seems this way.
So when Ping Pong asked me if I wanted to go to the Walking Street, a street full of shops and little booths for food, clothing, and other items that is only open on Sunday, I was shocked. It couldn’t be Sunday again already? There was no way that a week had gone by since we last went to the Walking Street. I didn’t believe it. Alas, time had flown swiftly, and there we were: one week later and 2 weeks from my arrival in Thailand. That’s when it hit me: this year is going to be over before I know it. Everyone says it. All the exchange students say that it flies by, but when you think about such a large chunk of time, a year, there’s not an easy way to wrap your head around that going quickly. But that was the moment I knew: I knew it would be quick, and as flawed and distorted as I know this sounds, it will be the shortest year of my life. I’m sure of it.
Consequently, even in the ephemerality that this year will have, I will make the most of it: say yes to everything. I will channel my inner Dennis and experience all life has to offer. I’ll keep eating insects, going on ferris wheels whose heights terrify me, eating food that stares at me while I consume it, and participating in Thai dancing even though I have about as much grace as a half-dead fish flopping around on a pier. I will do all this (as I already have) and so much more.
Maybe your year won’t go as quickly as mine. The hours may seem longer and the weeks may pass more slowly, but still, the brevity of life is inevitable, so you should pack as much in as you can. Say yes. Learn a language. Read a book. Change a life. Channel your inner Ghandi and, “be the change you want to see in the world.” Live Rotary’s theme for this year: be a gift to the world. After all, we only have such a short time on earth, and you can’t flip over the hourglass, so soak up the world around you. Use your time wisely. Don’t waste one second because you’ll never get it back.