A lad, when born, is expected to grow into a teenager, youth, and then an adult. During this evolution process, certain expectations are required of the individual, such as crawling, sitting, walking, speaking, getting admitted into a school, interacting with peers, getting educated, graduating, being productive with life, taking up responsibilities, getting married, and starting a home. Here’s a great lineup. For some time, it has been the usual way of life, and if it’s not met, certain societal questions then arise. Why? When? How?
The ticking clock.
There was this passing-out song I used to love back in secondary school and it reads:
Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh,
Shadows of the evening
Steal across the sky.
Whenever it’s sung, my legs are always raised high excitedly and that’s obviously because it’s time to go home. I remember how it wasn’t just me who always loved to hear the bell ring at the end of classes – we were a bunch! However, for me, this happened continuously and made me crave the comfort of home far more than the educational demands.
You thought I wouldn’t pass? Honestly, I thought so too. But guess what? I did.
I passed with flying colors but that’s a story for another day. Right now, the focus is different, and it is that: my desire to always go home never made me see the beauty of the classroom. I was always on my clock anticipating the jingle of the bell, and immediately it rang, I vamoose. During those times, all I saw was the discomfort, not realizing it was something I might one day look back on and miss.
And that’s the thing about us humans, we rarely pause to grasp the value of a season before desiring to escape it. We have our eyes fixed so much on our ticking clock that if the chance were given, we would tick all of our days to what we desire and never embrace what should be desired.
These concerns are exactly why I started with those societal questions. The pressure these questions bring might often make you as an individual desire an escape, but should society define you? Absolutely not! You should be the one shaping society and not surrendering to its expectations.
This, however, isn’t a call to be careless or passive; every season of your life holds value and purpose. You shouldn’t trade that fact for a thing! So, instead of asking “when”, you should make the very most of your time. This moment that you have won’t last forever and time, once passed, may not be reclaimed.
So, if there’s one thing to be done, it is to fully maximize “your now” before the “when” arrives.
