THE PERCEPTION OF TIME

When I was a child, things seemed to take forever.

The ice cream man getting my ice cream bar,

Mom finishing my birthday cake,

Waiting for Christmas morning,

The fish to bite on my worm,

It just seemed like everything was delaying my happiness.

As I got older, other things took forever.

The wait to get a driver’s license.

The anticipation of ketchup to pour,

The long hours until your date was ready,

Sitting through a movie with a date you knew wasn’t “the one“

The last bell dismissing high school for the day,

Graduation. It seemed that everything was testing my patience.

As I matured, it didn’t get any better.

It took forever to save up for that first car,

It was an ordeal to wait for legal drinking age,

It took forever to finish yet another history test,

The nightmare of the prom you didn’t want to go to.

The impatience of life was torment enough.

But it continued.

Getting married was the best day of my life,

But it troubled me that it took so long to plan,

The details, the date, the ceremony, the minister,

It continued with the photographer, the cake, the tux,

And all of the other minor details to be decided.

The whole thing was one delay after another.

Every stage of my life was taking forever.

And it wasn’t getting any better.

The kids didn’t grow up fast enough,

It seemed they were maturing too slowly,

The raises and promotions were never soon enough,

My life was just dragging on and on.

And then one day I retired.

I looked in the mirror, and I saw an old man.

One who was always waiting for something.

Waiting for the next thing, waiting for everything.

And while my life seemed to take forever.

I then realized just how quickly it had gone by.

I wish I would have enjoyed it more along the way.