Life isn’t short at all

You’re wasting your life

Alexis Haigler, reporter

     “Life is too short”. A phrase almost everyone has heard and many believed throughout time, about how one should take every second because you only have a finite amount of time, but in actuality, humans have way too much time.

     Sit for five minutes, a self-timeout. As you sit your mind races to fill the void of time, and the battle between our quiet nature and our thinking-selves can turn a minute into eternity. Everyone has countless examples of where time slowed down, whether crisis, creativity, rhythmic flow of work, or just moments so full of content and joy.

     Miles LaSeta, a Senior is a fry cook at a local restaurant called Bongustos. For six hours a day he is standing over a fryer, cooking food and taking orders until he can barely stand anymore. Those hours on end don’t fly by with breeze, those hours aren’t short. They are unbearably long.

     For the past two years, a family member of a North Harford student suffered from ulcerative colitis, a once happy and energetic person turned weak and sick, losing excessive amounts of weight and being forced to drop out of their dream school. While it has gotten better they still have to go to the doctor every two months for an infusion that helps for two weeks. Those past two years were not short, those weeks in between doctor visits aren’t short, and certainly not times they want to “take in” and “cherish”.

     500 years ago the life expectancy of a human was roughly 30-40 years old. In that time people would still live full lives even with half the time we have now. They still had children and jobs and spent time outdoors and doing what they enjoyed. They still had time to go see their friends or just relax with the people they love.

     You experience long life by being present for what is happening and making the most out of all the time you have, not worrying about good or bad or falling into the trap of what things “should be”.

      One of the leading authorities in mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn said “everyone wants to figure out how to live longer, but [mindfulness] this actually is a very easy way to live longer. Maybe you’re not extending your life, but you are present and living more of the moments of your life.” Living more of the moments in your life means you lived longer and more fully with the time you were given, no matter how long, good, or bad it felt.