The Time Paradox: Too Much, But Not Enough - Too Little, But Surplus
On some days, I think I have too little time. On some days, I think I have too much time. Let's talk about it.
I was eating a mixed-race banana. You know, the ones where one part is ripe, and the other is stubbornly hard. I was carefully dodging the unripe part while making sure I didn’t miss any of the ripe sections—like a spoilt monkey in an Arab home.
In the middle of this shenanigan, I suddenly remembered my age. It hit me! —just last week, I was 18, and 2020 was, like six days ago? I snapped back to reality and spat out the banana in my mouth; my tiny brown dog grabbed it and took off. I didn’t care.
Life’s moving so fast. Where did the last decade go? I asked myself.
**the mind of the reader inserts the meme of that dude looking for his car under a chair**
That’s reality 1.
At the same time, in an alternate universe, still me… I’m scrolling through Snapchat while chilling in the dog’s cage (don’t ask how). Suddenly, Snapchat sends a memory notification… it says ‘This was you 5 years ago.’ And there it was, a picture of me in a red long-sleeve shirt buttoned to the neck, skinny legs in tight jeans, and massive shoes that could fit your head; we called the shoe ‘Fear of God’.
‘Just Five years?’ I asked myself. The picture appeared like it was taken 40 years ago.
**the mind of the reader inserts the meme of that boy saying “wait a minute”**
That’s reality 2.
In both realities, it’s difficult to picture the journey from then to now. It feels like nothing really changed in a short period, while at the same time, it feels like everything changed in a long period. But I’m not here to discuss the past.
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Maybe life is long. And we have too much time from it…
On some days, I feel like the glass is half-full. Like I have too much time.
For one, I have enough time to write this nonsense, and you have enough time to read it—look at us, two jobless people.
**the mind of the reader inserts a meme of Spiderman pointing at Spiderman**
I have enough time to play with three dogs, watch Prison Break twice, and watch every video of Mike Tyson and Dave Chapelle on YouTube—and when I say ‘every’, I mean it.
You see, I can’t really use the saying “I don’t have time for this”; as it appears, there could be surplus of it.
And I believe the same applies to you, but you might disagree, because you have strong head.
**the mind of the reader inserts a meme of Speed Darlington saying “I get coconut head, I no dey hear word”**
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Maybe life is short. And we have too little time from it…
On some other days, I feel like the glass is half-empty… like I have no time.
There’s so much work to do, my to-do list never goes down. So many good movies to watch (have you seen Triple Frontier?), so many documentaries (did you see the Menendez brothers one?), so many nice TikToks, so many places to go (you should see my saved collection on Instagram), so many people to keep up with, so many dogs to play with (can’t complain about this tbh), so many books to read, but so little time to do them - let’s cry together.
**the mind of the reader inserts a meme of that small boy that was crying and then suddenly started laughing**
I have about 19 courses on Udemy that didn’t go beyond the second episode. Who What do I blame? Time.
And then, nature still went ahead to enforce sleep, which I feel should have been made optional.
Let’s digress for a minute, imagine sleep was optional, but the agreement would be that if you miss sleep for 8 hours, you lose 8 hours from your supposed life span. Would you take the offer? At least on some days? C’mon!
Back to the topic. Unfortunately, that mandatory sleep already takes up about 30% of our lifetime. And you’ll spend about another 40% hunting for daily bread. So the other 30%, do whatever you like with it - says nature.
You see, the excuse of “I don’t have time for this” could actually stand. Because if we consider all factors and keep all things unequal, we literally have no time.
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In my personal and very humble proud opinion…
Back in the day. I used to attach my happiness to how I spent my time. Such that, I would be happier on productive days and unhappy otherwise. I could be playing a game, and in my mind, I’d be like “I should be doing something better with my life right now, but I’m here wasting my life away playing this dumb game, the opponent is even beating me. What do I stand to gain from this…”.
It was so serious that I hated going out, such that if I spent more than an hour outside, I would start to get agitated and cranky. That’s a constant feeling of “I don’t have time”, which is bad, and thank God I’m a new man, the feeling is not as strong as it used to be.
In my personal and very humble proud opinion: If you constantly feel like believe you have time, or if you constantly feel like believe you don’t have time, you’re probably doing something wrong.
With that said, the consciousness of time is important and having these half-empty, half-full thoughts is a sign you’re intelligent enough to be conscious of it.
**the mind of the reader inserts a meme of that dude finger-tapping the right side of his head and saying “you smart”**
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Let’s get scientific for a minute before we wrap up…
Einstein’s special theory of relativity states that the same laws of physics apply everywhere, and the speed of light is constant for all observers, even when they’re moving.
Which is a good metaphor for how we experience time emotionally or psychologically, too. Five years might seem like an eternity when you’re waiting for something important, or it might fly by when you’re busy and caught up with life.
In reality, the amount of time is the same, but how we experience it depends on individual perspective.
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Now, let’s wrap this thing up…
You know, I was going to tie this conclusion to the banana part of the intro. And say something like “time’s a bit like that mixed-race banana—sometimes you get the sweet, ripe part where you feel like there’s too much of it, and other times you’re stuck with the stubborn, unripe part, wondering where all the good bits went.”
But then I realised, the analogy doesn’t actually make sense. The banana has ripe and unripe sections because it’s in a state of transition, and if you don’t want the unripe part, you can just wait for it to ripen. But time? It’s steady as ever. The difference is not in time itself but in how we experience it.
Some days, you’re lounging, watching Prison Break for the third time, thinking, “Wow, I’m practically swimming in free time”. Other days, you’re frantically jumping from one task to another, blaming time for every missed deadline. But here’s the secret: time hasn’t changed. It’s still there, ticking away at the same pace. (Yes, I’m as shocked as you are.)
I could write more, maybe because I have too much free time, but you might not have the time to read it. Or maybe you do have time to read, but then I don’t have the time to keep writing. Either way, let’s just stop here.