Hope Shared Through Time Fernando Miguel V. Carlos Victory Christian International School
I used to think that time would never run out, that the universe’s hourglass would just keep counting the seconds and minutes long after I am dead. And my friends and I would have hundreds of years before we grow up. I was proven wrong when I got to high school—the stage in life where you seem like you don’t have enough time for the things you want to do, and the things you have to do. I was in despair until I discovered the wonder of arbitrary concepts (from the weight of the gram to the laws that govern a nation). Somewhere lost in the bunch, fitted snuggly with the rest of the arbitrary concepts: Time. I find it fascinating that the one thing we worry about so much technically doesn’t exist. Time is but an illusion, and, upon that realization, my heavy burden about not having enough time was lifted. I realize that time is something we have made for ourselves to help rule over the universe with our imposing numbers of hours and days. Because that’s the reason for the invention of these made up ideas, to help organize and understand the unknown. We create laws to prevent crimes, decide the weight of a single gram to help us find the mass of a car. And we keep track of time to count the days or hours we have left on this earth. I used to count how many minutes were left on the clock before it’d reach 10:30 in the morning. Recess. Counting down to the milliseconds till I was free from the clutches of Algebra’s icy grip—this is what kept me sane. But why time?
Time is the light at the end of the dark tunnel; it is not hope itself. But it’s a pretty good representation of the future hope we have waiting for us at the end. Time helps bear the pain a little bit longer, a little bit further. And lastly, time is what keeps us going. Time promises us the possibility of an end, or a point of rest. Time ends things like a day ending after 24 hours have passed, or a year after 365 days. It is but reassuring that eventually, things will pull through and we will be left looking at our hardships and trials solely through our pasts. Time is much more central to our being than we care to understand. People stranded on an island usually end up counting the weeks and months they are stuck in solitude, counting the days till they are saved. A patient in a coma, for one, taught himself to tell the time of day just by looking at the shadows outside. This helped him pass the time. Deep down we look for hope during instances of trouble and fear in time. When will it end? How long have I gone through this? Will it last any longer? These are the questions we ask ourselves when we experience hurt and sadness, because we can’t understand these unknown and trivial things of life. And these are the only questions that only time can tell. I believe that when everyone is born, everyone is given a fixed amount of time, and what we use it on determines how things will turn out for you. Sit around all day and just stay up late—instantly unhealthy. Spend too much time fixing how you look—you become narcissistic. Spend 15 minutes chatting with a person you like, and chances are that you must’ve invested something romantic with that person. Spend time looking at the bright side, and you’ll turn out positive. If you actually look close enough, time is our kind of currency. A pretty frightening thought though is when some of us realize that we spend a lot of our time
on things that don’t help us at all. That leaves us with no hope. And like my freshman thinking, time easily runs out for each individual. It is a valuable resource that we more often than not mishandle, when others could have better use for more time. Which is why spending our time with other people who need it is important. Time will never run out for people whose upmost goal is to help those in need. We have to start sharing our time with people. Just by asking how their day went, bringing them out to dinner, going on a trip together, you can encourage and bring hope to them. So to end, hope is shared when you take a moment of your time to be there for the people around you.