It’s quite hilarious really, the way time works on the mind. As we progress we pass through stages, or mental growth points. Like when we first see color, or when we learn right from wrong; or at least the right and wrong our peers teach us. Who’s really to say what’s right and what’s wrong these days. We pass through phases of happiness and phases of discomfort; unstable hormone periods and physical growth periods. Each phase of the wheel of life leaves tracks on our minds. The ways these changes over time affect our minds varies from person to person but in the end they craft who we become.

We go through periods where everything seems wrong. Like there is no right and there is only “the wrong”. Bad days that pile on for weeks on end; a dead end job with not a single benefit for you; a break up with someone who supposedly cared so deeply for you, yet could walk off with the latest body upgrade. In this particular place and time our society has drifted away from what by conventional standards could be considered as normal. Thing’s that seem wrong or that are wrong are passed over as the steady pace of new world living grabs us and shoves us onward. Suicide, murder, homicide, depression and also anxiety are no longer unfamiliar terms for us. Children get tossed in and out of abusive homes for the government check they bring in and that’s just fine and dandy. A whacked out kid with a homemade pipe bomb blows up a school and its second rate news to the whims and paroles of the rich and famous. Is this right?

Whether right or wrong as we grow older we bury these thoughts just to get through the day. Those problems don’t pertain to me so why should I think about them? In time, we only think about it in passing glimpses of causal conversation and think “Oh, well, I’ll look into some charity tomorrow” and then we let it fade back into the oblivion of our minds.

As our mind ages we begin to reflect back on the things we did, didn’t do, should have done, could have done, would have done, if only… All the excuses for not straying away from the normal. When we’re younger and in our “rebellion” years, we change our ideals, our habits and our morals to differ from that which has been laid down before us. The wisdom of the ages is just some old mans gossip and it wont help get me where I want to go. We feel pain over emotional changes more then we ever had or ever will again. We want to feel needed, loved, cared for, used, wanted and all of the above. We want everything and we want it right now. Then time slaps us back in the face and tells us to be patient, to let things fall into place and we strike out against it. What is time when you’re young, free and without any real responsibility?

The experiences we attain when we’re “young and restless” affect who we become as time passes on. Emotionally devastating events, such as rape or the loss of everything you hold dear can physically and mentally cripple us as we grow older. We seek subconsciously people to surround ourselves with that remind us of the peers or important figures in our earlier lives. Tendencies like Co-dependence rub off and get you into the same bad places as your adult role model is in. Sometimes we recognize them and place all the blame on our peers but can’t or won’t change them. It’s not our fault we turned out to be psychopathic maniacs, it was bad parenting, or it was the systems fault. It’s anyone else’s but our own.

The funny thing about time that most people fail to realize is that we can shape it. We can make it into whatever we want it to be. With time you can grow. If you never grow then you’re wasting your life away. What happened at one point in time can make you stronger for another, if you let it. Being afraid of straying away from the path set forth for you by time not only hinders you, but it makes you weak. You’re weak when you walk by that stray dog on the corner in that alley. You’re weak when you know someone’s being abused and you let it happen anyway because “It’s not your problem”. You’re weak when you let time drive you off your personal path and onto the same lane that the majority is in. Reach out, speak up, scream, do anything… just don’t let time leave you with regrets.