The Accumulation of 1,440 Minutes

It’s been almost two years since I moved to the countryside. I’m surprised how quickly the time has passed by, and at the same time, I’ve come to realize once again how incredibly fast time moves when you look back on it. When I was 10 years old, we had a school project called "Halfway to coming-of-age ceremony," where we wrote letters to our 20-year-old selves. I’m nowhere near the 20-year-old self my 10-year-old self imagined. Or I think the child version of me largely overestimated what it meant to be an adult.

When I was 10, 10 years felt like an eternity. But as they say, “Time flies like an arrow.” When you become an adult and join an organization, you’re eventually required to retire when you reach the age of retirement. While there is a re-employment system, the fact remains that the length of time you can work in that organization is predetermined. When you first join a company, you may feel like the future 40 years away is endless. However, just like how 20-year-old me realized that “10 years pass in the blink of an eye,” I’m sure those 40 years will also feel like they fly by in no time.

In other words, life is surprisingly short—or rather, it feels short in terms of our perception of time. I can easily imagine looking back at retirement age and thinking, “Those years passed in an instant.” It might sound like a cliché self-help sentiment, but perhaps the idea that “those who enjoy life win” isn’t entirely wrong.

That said, I remember hearing someone say—though I’ve forgotten who—that a life where you still have things left undone by the time you die is more fulfilling. What’s truly better, I don’t know. It probably depends on the person. At the very least, for now, I strongly feel that I don’t want to have regrets, and I just want to make decisions that I believe are right for myself at this moment and move forward with conviction.

Bye!