Time

There was a time in my life when I only bought clothing from American Eagle.

There was a time in my life when I didn't understand negative numbers.

There was a time in my life when I was afraid of vacuum cleaners.

Thank goodness time passes slowly enough to let me grow up.

Thank goodness 2012 has arrived.

I've heard it said that the New Year doesn't really mean anything. You know, 2011 and 2012 are just labels we put on our days, but there's really no difference between December 31st and January 1st. It's no "new beginning." But really, just the label itself is what makes it so special. And so important.

Until recently, I had a certain watch that I literally loved to pieces. This watch attached itself to my wrist the first month I started school at Agnes Scott and never came off. (I even wore it to formal events and in family photos. Sorry I'm not sorry.) It had yellow paint on it from my first Black Cat week, a melted spot from cooking barbeque at camp, and scratches galore from who knows what.

I loved it so much that it stayed on my desk in its broken state for over a month before I took this picture and tossed it out.

Its replacement is the most similar one I could find. Of course it was disappointing that I could not find an identical one, but as a consolation I set it two minutes fast, just like I had set my old one. I wasn't really loving the idea of my new watch until I discovered that my best friend Anna also bought that same watch, and we miraculously set them only two seconds apart from each other. Such a far-fetched coincidence makes me feel closer to Anna. She and I are living our lives on the same timeline, with the same thing strapped to our wrists.

Seriously a cool coincidence. Two seconds apart!

So, y'know what?  Time is pretty cool. New Year's is pretty cool. People whom I've never met were cheering at the same moment I was. Your favorite movie star was celebrating at the same exact moment you were (give or take a few time zones). Even if the moment itself isn't much worth celebrating, the celebration itself is the kind of thing I'll cheer for. If an instant is called a new beginning, then by golly I'm all for beginning new.

Sometimes this same idea gives me a huge reality check. I'll think to myself, "Say, I wonder if Miley Cyrus is eating breakfast right now." And then I'll realize my thoughts should be, "Wow, a small child just died of malnutrition just now, while I just finished a bowl of Cheerios." It's all on one timeline. The world just got a little bit smaller.

And that one timeline was created, designed, engineered, by God. There was an existence before time and before space. God existed and he thought of time and space. Seriously, who thinks of that?! Time didn't exist, space didn't exist, and then He made it exist, and he gave me a time and a place and sometimes it matches up with other people's times and spaces. And I'm thankful for it. I'm thankful for the time and space I've been through. I'm thankful for the time and space I'll be. I'm thankful for 2012. 

Happy new year.