New Year’s Eve is three weeks out and I’m wondering if I made any resolutions last year that I’ve misplaced along the way. It was actually last December 31st when the first official COVID case was reported. If that seems like a million years ago or just yesterday, I get it.
After spending nine months in “suspended animation,” time is harder to pin down. Without the normal comings-and-goings that once shaped our lives, our brains are challenged to anchor us in the day, the week, or even the month. Every day feels like “blursday” and weekends don’t seem much different from weekdays. Keeping time has become a taxing challenge for our stressed-out mental bookkeeping systems.
Usually, the older we get, the more rapid the passage of time. Each advancing year pushes the days to fly by faster and holidays seem to show up sooner every year. But for younger people, each year can be an eternity. Novel experiences tend to slow down perceptions of time. As we mature, there are fewer “novel events,” so time rushes merrily apace. But in youth, every day is a new adventure and time just meanders along its course.
The pandemic, though, has reversed those perceptions. The older we are, research shows, the slower time is creeping by. Younger people are now experiencing a “fast forward” sense of time perception.
But for all of us, Monday is Thursday, December is July, and backwards is now forwards. Before starting to count down the days left in this ridiculous year, you might as well accept that you’ll likely lose count before you are halfway done.
I’m Suzanne Degges-Whiteand that’s my perspective.
