Time is a villain in most of my stories, necessarily because time just teaches lessons that are harsh that too in the most brutal ways. Time, however, is very frank about itself. Still, we can not deny its cruelty, especially when the only thing that ends the most beautiful stories is time. We have all once been the victims of time, at least once been victims of what time does to man, But we can not deny that we wouldn't be victimized if we had been just a little franker like the time. It's funny that we all realize, but we never learn, and it's surprising that even though we fell down a hundred times, we still don't know to jump when facing a pit. Time has always been the best rival to an ever-changing human, especially when our hearts decide to stay back for a while, but time forces us to run. We have all had moments when we wished "just one moment, I wished time would stop" however this phrase has just been an expression of how much you loved that moment and nothing more.
Years ago, when I first made friends at school, when I first realized I liked someone when that someone's nearby or talking to me, when I realized its the last few months or weeks of school left and when I was standing there in the hall during our farewell day amidst all my friends I only wished one thing "just one moment I wish time would stop."It's been many years now, and I have many more friends and many more memories, and along with them, I have many more moments when I wished time would stop. However, like they say, time waits for no one, and so with time, even the wishes we wished change. Now I don't wish to stop time for a moment anymore; now I wish I could turn back time. It's funny and amusing at the same time how much a human can love the past, even though he never liked it while it was still happening. The truth is we all want pasts, we all like the fact that we had a history with some places and people, but I wonder whats the reason. I wonder, would we still wish to go back if we never met those people? I wonder if I do find a way to go back, will it be the same? i wonder if I meet them again, will we still be the same? well I recently found out some answers.
A few days ago, I was walking on a path I always dragged my feet on; however, that day, my feet lost control and started running faster than my brain; it's not surprising why thought. From a distance, I could recognize her form as far I could actually make sure it was her; I didn't wait, not a second could I hold back the tears I ran, ran like I did never before, maybe I was still afraid that if I go any slower, I will lose her again.
She didn't realize my presence yet, so she stood there at a distance casually still bargaining with the shopkeeper to give her a 50% discount, "she didn't change at all, "I thought to myself. I finally reached her, calmed myself down, put my hand on her shoulder, and said," You never change, do you?". She turned back, it was her, I know, but something changed. I thought the moment I see her, she will be as glad as me, But to my disappointment, she only said, "Hi, long time no see," as if I was just an acquaintance she once knows. But the fact is we were best friends, friends who never had formalities. I took the initiative and hugged her, but then she donged and said, "what are you doing, grow up. "When we were away, I thought the distance was the most immense pain in life, but that one moment when standing so close to her yet witnessing the distance I realized that becoming a stranger to people who were once you own and to see them move forward abandoning you behind forever is the most painful thing that could happen. i waited for her to say, "I missed you. "I stood there waiting .she finished her purchase and walked away, walked away from me again, like she walked away back then, the only difference was back then she ran back to me and said bye, now she just silently walked away and waved bye from a distance. I won't lie; I was deeply hurt that day, or maybe it will be more appropriate to say I was broken. I turned back on the way I came this time. My feet dragged themselves unwillingly, turned around to see if she was coming this way, and then stopped, then they ran at the highest speed till then finally reached a silent place. I swear I did not cry that day like I cried the day she left back then. Only one drop of tear flowed down my cheeks and dropped down to crash on the floor, similar to my heart's hope, which hit rock bottom and shattered into thousands of broken pieces.
We never fought, we never had conflicts, we never for once hated each other for any reason, we quickly apologized and forgave each other even if we had disagreements, But that day I didn't know what was wrong I didn't know why there was an invisible wall between us. But now, after learning the cruelty of time, I can finally understand that its the fault of time that the once best friends are now strangers, because as times passed, old colors faded away, as time passed new colors replaced old once.and as time passed relations become stories and memories and friends become just mere characters of a play. That's when i realised that time changes a lot about people and a lot about life, in a way that if we did ever turn back time we will still not be the same.
And as time passed, this happened so often that I no longer run to meet them; I no longer hug them,i no longer wait till they leave. But I wonder if anyone would run towards me, if anyone ever hugs me, if ever someone will wait for me to walk back to them, I promise if they ever do , I will run towards them too, I will hug them back and I won't let them leave; I promise I will force time to stop for one more moment, no matter what it takes to do so.
-Athena
Childhood, the only ideal fantasy that ever was true, How long? How beautiful? It doesn't matter; childhood is always beautiful. Those carefree days when we lived part of life ever with so much enthusiasm, when we are allowed to be reckless and childish when immaturity was just a synonym to "cute" and when fantasies and dreams were respected equally with reality and above all the times that we all believed in ideality over reality. Sometimes I think growing up is a curse; our life and the rules to a good life change as we grow up, and maturity starts costing us our values, virtues, and in worst cases, dreams. We grow up to realize that the hope that "lived happily ever after "was false and unreal, or at least we stop trying to know if it is even possible. We become so busy living a better life that we forget to live life in a better way, and the worst is that we ever stop realizing the difference. Every time we lose the battle of time and change, we complain, complain that the dream was unreal and not practical, complain that we did not have the best of resources, and complain that we did not get enough help. We also complain that others are complaining about us. We bend the stories of ideality to prove our innocence and sincerity; instead of correcting our reality with the reference of ideal, we claim those as untrue and faulty." It's not practical," "We should think practically," "no one ever did that before, " become the famous lines to reject dreams, dreams of others, as well as our own. We are scared that we might fail, so we just reject it in the stage of "idea" itself. And so with time, ideality becomes a dream that scares us, and we end up calling all our ideologies, values, and virtues and dreams as fantasies and tag them "childish."
