in a blink of an eye

Do you remember having "What it will be like..." thoughts? I sure do. I can remember thinking about what it would be like to ride a bike without training wheels. My curiosity eventually got the best of me after I commandeered my big brother's bike. I wasn't even out of the neighborhood yet before I fell off and onto one of the handlebars, knocking the wind out of me.

I also remember thinking about what it would be like to drive! In High School, driving was the coolest thing next to having a Letterman's jacket or for the most part, wearing a boyfriend's Letterman's jacket. I think the latter was actually the cooler of the two because you had a boyfriend (1 cool point) who also lettered (bonus cool points). But driving was a one way ticket to freedom and social attraction. I was a little extra cool in my days. I had a car my Sophomore year and and parking pass, illegally that is! I was the only Sophomore parking my car in the lot. Apparently only a select few could appreciate my coolness because I couldn't letter in it and didn't get to wear a boyfriend's jacket for it.

And then there was the "What will college be like?" thought. College was everything and more than I had expected. I guess I didn't really know what I was going to expect for college but it was a time full of late night food runs, cramming as many people as you can into a car and paying with change, long nights of girl talk, movie watching and dorm room pranks, and finally, early morning classes that you would attend in your sweatpants and sweatshirt (sometimes even slippers) while dozing off and comprehending nothing while at it, only to go back to your dorm room to sleep until mid afternoon.

Now my short point is that these life chapters felt like they were going to take sooooo long to get to. I remember counting down the years to when I would reach the end of each of my "What will it be like..." questions. And once they arrived, they seemed to be gone faster than I could ever had imagined! Don't let the years go by without making them count by fulfilling them with purpose. Without purpose, no direction can be taken, leaving us with just empty years ending in what will feel like a short-lived, shallow life.

Here are some lyrics by the band Revive that state this beautifully and will hopefully make you think twice about what you are going to fill your years with:

Teach me to number my days
And count every moment before it slips away
Taking all the colors before they fade to gray
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this

It happens in a blink
It happens in a flash
It happens in the time it took to look back
I try to hold on tight, but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life
It happens in a blink

When it's all said and done
No one remembers how far we have run
The only thing that matters is how we have loved
I don't want to miss even just a second more of this

It happens in a blink
it happens in a flash
it happens in the time it took to look back
I try to hold on tight but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life
It happens in a blink

Slow down, slow down
Before today becomes our yesterday
Slow down, slow down
Before you turn around and it's too late

It happens in a blink
it happens in a flash
it happens in the time it took to look back
I try to hold on tight but there's no stopping time
What is it I've done with my life
It happens in a blink