Day 30: Stay Conscious
- Ava
- Apr 15, 2020
- 2 min read
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Day 30 of Quarantine: Stay Conscious
Total cases (US): 613886
Total deaths(US): 26047
I feel like people tend to put a bad spin on the idea of time. Yes, it "waits for no one" but it is an opportunity. What is valuable about looking at your life as a measure of years, days, and minutes?
Racing time has no purpose, it is better to accept it. Time is simply measurement of opportunity, not a definition of our lives. We must stay aware of it but not let it measure our accomplishments, productivity or even value.
During these days, you don't have more time than normal, it may be less filled. April is going to come and go no matter what, so be open! Once again, how do you want to remember this time?
Time appears or feels to be moving faster. But what makes it seem to be going by so quickly? Maybe it is not having a routine, not having the usual stress, not having excitement, not having any activities. It is an interesting concept that time is equivalent to the opportunities we have. To race time and think about it too much can be unrewarding.
I have included my 8th-grade valedictorian speech because it is about time and making the most of it.
I’m Ava and I have gone to this school for 9 years. 3198 days. 4,000,000 minutes. 276,000,000 seconds. And how am I supposed to fit my experiences into a 60 second speech? All of this time consisted of laughter, competition, kindness, and learning. These moments will always be a part of our childhoods, in fact, these moments at ECCA have taken up most of our childhoods. From the parents driving us to enrichment to the teachers who have stayed up late grading our assignments. Doing this for the sole purpose of helping us be successful in our futures and believing in us. Nearly a decade at this school has gone by and each one of us is standing here today because of how we spent our time. How we use each moment will determine our futures for the rest of our lives so smile, take a deep breath, and live in this moment. Thank you.
Stay conscious,
Ava
Thanks, Ava. When people ask the hypothetical, "Which superpower would you wish for," I've always shunned invisibility, the power to fly, or shapeshifting. What I've always wished for is the ability to shift time, to push pause on the moments I want to cherish with family, to slow down time when I feel stressed and have too much to do, and to slow down my too-quickly aging children. I feel a bit like my wish has come true now (in a twisted and unimaginable way) and that many of us have been given the gift of time. Time to read, learn, appreciate, be in silence, and try to enjoy patience. Thanks for the reminder!