Time is Like Toilet Paper

"Time is like toilet paper."

When my grandfather said this to me a few years ago, I wasn't sure exactly what I meant.

Now, I get it.

Think about life as an elementary school student. The duration of a day was a pretty long time. Recess seemed like it was never going to come when the teacher was taking attendance in the morning. If it was December 1, waiting for Christmas was an eternity. Forget about fantasizing about summer break when it's only September. Time went slowly.

Now think about your freshmen year of high school. All the teachers told you how fast it was going to go. Before you know it, you're starting your senior year. Prom seemed like decades ago. That homecoming dance was even longer.

College is a whole other story. A semester goes by like the blink of an eye (please pardon the overly used cliche). I remember my freshmen year as if it happened minutes ago. My roommate, Meghan, and I would play ridiculous games and laugh until the middle of the night. We spent most of our time on the weekends in the campus cafeteria along with ten of our other friends. All of us wore crappy sweatpants with our lanyard around our necks. Typical freshmen. Breakfast turned into lunch and before we knew it, it was 5:00 at night. Now, I'm about to go on Thanksgiving break for my 5th year of college. 5 years. The last four flew. Like flew. 

This brings me back to my point: Time is like toilet paper.

The outside parts go around relatively slowly. If you're looking at it mathematically, it's got a longer radius, taking it longer time to go around. As the roll is used up, it spins faster and faster. Before you know it, you're that sucker that's asking the girl in the stall next to you for extra toilet paper. (Which is never a pleasurable thing to do.)

So what happens after college? It's gone unexplainably fast so far and if my grandpa knows what he's talking about (which he definitely does), we're all screwed. One day, I'm going to wake up and be 54 years old if time continues at this pace. 

Slow down. Life goes fast, if we're enjoying it, that is. There's really nothing we can do to stop it (other than to purposefully have a miserable time - that, no one wants). All I can do is to remind myself to appreciate and notice the moments that are flying by. We all know how quickly these moments will soon turn into memories.