TIME

Time and tide wait for no man. A pompous and self-satisfied proverb, and was true for a billion years; but in our day of electric wires and water-ballast we turn it around: Man waits not for time nor tide. Mark Twain

A saying true in the 20th Century and truer still in the 21st. The seeming disregard to time is never more evident than now. All of us at one point in our lives wish to be younger or older. Usually when we’re kids, we look forward to our 18th birthday. At 18 we look forward to our 21st. At 21 we look forward to 40, after
which we start reminiscing about 18 and 21. You may think that’s not you. But how
many of us went through grade school, just looking forward to high school, go
there and after two years start straining at the leash to start college, after which we either loose momentum and don’t want to get out, or we are just waiting to be let loose on the world.

What’s wrong with this? Absolutely nothing. The problem comes when you so look forward to the future that you neglect utilizing the present. One’ s full potential is never fully realized in such a circumstance.

Another problem is that we so look forward to certain stages of the future that when we get to those stages we are deceived into thinking that we are accomplished. A problem facing many present day college students is the thought that college is the summit in life. In high school, college looks like the beautiful snow capped hills we adore from afar. Some do not realize that the best view can be attained from the peak, but the path to get there is arduous and challenging. Requiring every iota of commitment if you are to succeed. Because how else can you interpret the behavior of bright young men and women, getting into college, just for them to neglect their studies, stop attending classes, start experimenting on various vices with no thought of life after college. One statistic that most college students can quote is that in the United States, going to college means you are more likely to make more than the high school graduate. However some students are forgetting that firstly, the key words are “ more likely? and secondly the comparism is with an inferior measurement. Just as anyone can find one other person he is comparatively in a better circumstance than, so also, the above statistics is meaningless.

It is time we realize we are living history. What we do today determines how future generations regard us. We each have responsibilities to society, not only to seek our own aims, but also help others achieve them. Do we want to bequeath to our siblings, the future generation, the culture of unproductivity after college? There has been the awakening generation, the transcendental generation, the abolitionists generation, the greatest generation, silent generation, baby boomers, generation Y, please don’t let us be known as the unproductive generation.

Never have we had it quite like we do now. Allow me to expound on this, using the words of Charles Dickens in “A Tale of Two Cities?.

IT WAS the best of times; of all the times past, this is the time I love been in. Not that I have any other choice or that I do not fantasize about experiencing occasions in other ages, like been present at Christ’s birth, but I’d rather live in my age anyway. We have virtually everything in this age. Information has never been more widely accessible, opportunities more widespread or comforts more readily available. Technology has provided more available time as we can now do everything at a faster rate. Everything from making coffee to reproducing can be done at our own time and convenience. Inexplicably, this has also been:

The worst of times; technology provides more time without really providing positive outlets for the utilization of the extra time. It has come to look like whatever time we save is used to destroy our own lives. Think of loneliness and depression that leads to our taking our own lives, obesity that comes from laziness. We would wake up late, grab an instant coffee, jump into our cars, go to class, jump back into our car, get to our rooms, use the internet to find works that have already been done so that we can plagiarize in our homework, just to sit in front of the video game all day. We even end up going online to get cheat codes, just do that we can finish a game and go to the next one.

it was the age of wisdom; The 21st century produces innovations everyday. Theories that have existed for ages, are been tested and strengthened or disproved. With the entry into the educational sector of minorities, more knowledge is made available to more members of our generation.

it was the age of foolishness; Now more than ever before is the wisdom of the elders been neglected. We negate all their wise words saying they are not of our time and therefore they do not understand our situation, failing to realize that their knowledge is gained from past experiences and mistakes they do not want us to undergo. We claim modernity without roots, forgetting that after having done all, we must refer again to our history, for history not only repeats itself, but knowledge of the past can alter our future, as some wiser than myself already said.

it was the epoch of belief; self belief, with a lot of market for all the self help books, claiming to help you believe in yourself, telling you that you have full control of your fate, your destiny.

it was the epoch of incredulity; Everything is questioned, our relevance in the universe, superiority to beasts, Peculiarity, the existence of God and even what determines our sexuality.

it was the season of Light, The end of slavery, apartheid, more philanthropists everywhere in the world.

it was the season of Darkness; loss of conscience, degeneneration of man by his works to base bestiality. Wickedness and the favorable light shown on witchcraft by the writers and producers

it was the spring of hope; Hope springs eternal, but for their to be hope, there must exist a better. As the world retrogresses into deceit, wickedness and chaos, the promise of a better place has never been more appealing. The best way to go through this life is to endure it, having hope of the greatest and most precious promise, that of a new Heaven and a New Earth.

it was the winter of despair; wars, natural disasters, aids, discouragement make the news everyday. We have now come to expect a calamity everyday. In fact we always expect bad news and are shocked when good news, makes the news.

we had everything before us; our choices to make, our lives to live

we had nothing before us; Life it seems is always against us

we were all going direct to Heaven; that would have given God the greatest pleasure

we were all going direct the other way- …thankfully, not all true either.

In all these things, we must have something to be thankful for and something to ponder over. Let’s use our time wisely; we have the option of getting everything express, but with this opportunity comes more responsibility. We must make the best use of our awarded time, for as Carl Sandburg, the great American journalist, poet, historian, biographer, and autobiographer, who wrote a Pulitzer prize winning biography on Abraham Lincoln notably stated, “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.?