No news, but time is relative
It has been a while since I last wrote here. A lot has happened. I decided to put a pause on my entrepreneurial path and go back to the corporate/start-up world. During these years, I struggled to get pregnant, I lost 2 babies (at 7 and 8 weeks) and I gave birth to an amazing baby girl (at 34 weeks) who is now 9 months old and super healthy and happy. All of this got me thinking a lot about time and how things change.
The days may take long to pass, but the years go by very fast.
This statement caught my attention recently. Time is a funny thing, as the perception of it is completely different for everyone. A day has 24 hours for everyone and, even though it is the most valuable asset we all have, it is not appreciated by everyone in the same way.
During my maternity leave, my husband would come home from work and ask about my day. It triggered a peculiar sensation because even though I was tired, it seemed like I didn’t do much. Taking care of a baby is a lot of responsibility and we are constantly on alert, thus our entire body gets tired. For example, being a mom showed me that we can get tired even by sitting on a couch the entire day!
When my daughter was 20 days old, I was overwhelmed by a mix of emotions and hormones that resulted in a crying crisis. The reason? Time was going by so fast. Everyone had warned me about the fleeting nature of these early days, but the intensity of the feeling took me by surprise. Now, looking back, it seems that this was ages ago, yet it seems like it was yesterday. Why does time feel like this?
In my opinion, it’s because it is all relative. For example, now in Lisbon is 19ºC. Is this a hot or cold weather? It depends. If we compare it to São Paulo, in the middle of a heat wave, it is cold, because they are showing 36ºC now. However, when compared to New York City it is hot because it is now 6ºC there. So, just like the weather, time is also relative.
Coming back to my crying episode. When I analyze my daughter’s life, now a 9-month-old baby, when she was 20 days old was actually ages ago. She has developed so much, grown, and learned new things. She started eating food and sleeping in her own room. Many milestones were conquered and she is a different person now when compared to when she was 20 days old. So yes, the crying episode was ages ago.
However, when I analyze my perspective, I’m 36 years old now, so 9 months in my life is not too much. I did change a lot in this period and I’m not the same person I was before my daughter was born, but yes, for my life, 9 months ago seems like it was yesterday.
Coming to the end of the year, we always hear “It seems like this year went by a blink of an eye” and yes, the older we get, the faster it will seem that the years will go by. After all, 1 year for a 1-year-old is this baby’s entire life, but 1 year for someone who is 90 years old is only 1/90 of this person’s life.
In the end, time really is relative. Days may seem longer to pass than years, but we all should aim to enjoy the moments and cultivate the memories. These 9 months have shown me that it is possible to miss what we are living, so enjoying the journey is as important as enjoying the destination.
