The Seven Ages

I’m lately struck by the revelation about how life changes. College doesn’t seem like it got over yesterday anymore. It has started seeming a thing of the past now, the whole scenario hazy in your mind. And that void induced by the memories has changed it’s shape, taken a more solid form. Your college friends have all got engrossed in their own lives, and if you all have a considerable physical distance between you, probability is that you would not be aware of what they are doing at this very moment, or what thought is currently troubling their mind. Fact remains that the chemistry you have with your friends can not be overridden, but an equally valid fact is that the gap cannot be, either. The Whatsapp group only sees an occasional forward, or news about significant life events.

And it is all very natural. The time you have is limited. There are jobs to be catered to, chores to be done. Your body to be paid attention to, now that you are moving towards the wrong side of twenties, and the pounds seem way keener to NOT part their ways.

Moving along, your friends are the few selected people on the same page as you in your society, and the people you spend time with in office, and the few family friends in vicinity. It’s all about the vicinity at that point, it seems. The physical proximities. No matter how heavenly or at peace you feel after talking to an old friend of yours, (because well, the way they GET you is what makes them just so irreplaceable), you don’t get to see them every day. 

And so life goes on, you get married, your priorities change, you have an endless to-do list and everything else seems a blur. Days and months and years pass. Maybe this is why, I have this nagging that feel we should consciously make a habit while our psyches are still malleable.

No matter where you are, and no matter what your priorities are, fix weekly slots, no matter how small (because daily ones are kind of impractical) for the following:

1. Your Time with Yourself

I never quite understand WHY so many people are uncomfortable with that. Why do they always have to be fidgeting and engrossed in or up to something? It can be the time you take a walk alone, have coffee in a café by yourself, or just sit alone in an empty room. Talk to yourself. Trust me on this, your soul needs your company.

2. Your Time with Your Partner

And this has to be just the two of you. Remind yourself of what pulled you towards them, do the things you both like doing. Never let the feeling of strangeness seep in. Talk it out, discuss, argue over an issue. Arguing is healthy to an extent. Challenge each other. Hold hands and grow together.

3. Your Time with Your Kids

Make it a point to spend time individually. Connect on the most basic levels and create memories together. These memories would be the treasures they would carry with themselves forever, when scores of years have passed and they need solace from their current life’s troubles.

4. Your Time with Your Friends

Find new friends if you have run out of friends to hang out with. Go out and look for people. I’m sure there would be many more. Be proactive and take charge. Connect and make plans to hang out. Talk about any random shit. But just get away from everything and do something else.

“But then it passed, as all things do.”  - Khaled Hosseini

P.S. Couldn't think of any other title after scribbling this down. Remember this poem from the ninth grade?