"Enjoying the process means you appreciate the time"
When I was little, I was amazed by the cuckoo clock (well, obviously not many kids these days now about this clock). I always look forward to the birds that come out when it strikes every hour. I still remember how I used to like watching a clock show at a shopping mall in Jakarta. I was such an innocent kid back then countdown the time for a short performance and now I’m facing a harsh truth about time. I realized that time can be a friend or foe, depends on how you treat it. With a trigger by a few dramas and movies, I got to reflect on my life whether I’m living it right or not and I would like to share it with you.
Like many people said, “life is short”. Sometimes this sentence is true, but sometimes it’s not. Centuries ago, people could reach the age of 700 or even older, but no more in this century. If there is someone who reached the year of 100 or above, many will celebrate but sometimes many will feel sorry about it since they are too old to walk or doing some activities. No one can predict their lifetime in this world, so with the life-is-short mindset, it is necessary to use time wisely. I believe even though we could reach until 100 years old, we probably would say life is short. Not many liked (I’m also not a fan of it) the K-drama, “About Time” (acted by Lee Sungkyung and Lee Sang Yoon), but I learned a lot from this drama despite its’ poor performance. After watching the drama, I got to ask myself, what if I can see my lifespan? Or what if I can see someone else’s one? What kind of life I will live if I have that ability? The drama teaches me that when you know how much time you have you will surely get used the most of it. You will live the life you want it. But, God knows that human is greedy, no matter how much time human have, they will ask to get more time. Think about it, I bet you’ve done it before when you are doing your exam and you need more time because you haven’t finished it yet. Same with life, we tend to need more time because we “haven’t finished” our matters in our life. The drama also taught me, no matter how much we prepared to face eternity (a.k.a death), we are never ready to be separated from the people we love. “Hi, Bye Mama” also taught a similar thing.
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| Credit: TvN (sseureki via Tumblr) |
We will never win against time, but time has the power to heal. Taking a lyric from a song B1A4 titled,” Like a Child”:
So, why fight against it when we can befriend it?
I think the playlist in my “2019 K-pop Theme Songs” is quite relatable with this feature (read here).
In 2020, there are many new drama or movie releases that have in common. It talks about a time or the idea of time traveling (since we cannot travel in real life anw). I mentioned the best parallel world drama in 2020 in my previous post, “Jennifer’s Passion 2020 Awards”. Well, what I wanted to say is the common thing between those dramas is the wish to be able to turn back time. I believe almost everyone wants to be able to undo their wrongdoings, mistake, or wrong choices. But, yeah time is unable to move backward nor it can’t be stopped by human choice. Like every other thing, every choice comes with some consequences. One thing that I can take a lesson from watching those dramas is every time the time traveler tries to change the past, they changed the now, and obviously, the future changed too. Time teaches us that the past, now, and future will always be connected and what we did in the past is what shaped us today.
Well, the pandemic messed up our time and planning very much. But, it teaches us to maximize our time in a day, because we never know what will happen. We might have plans, but we never truly know whether we can carry out those plans or not because everyone’s timeline is uncertain. But actually, time is certain and precise because it keeps on moving forward and never moves backward. By the time it moves backward, it might be a doomsday, like what those time-traveling movies pictured.
I don’t know about you, but I feel as I grew older, I feel like time passed by so fast. At some time, I couldn't believe that I’ve graduated senior high 7 years ago already or I’ve been friends with my best friends for 13 years already! By the time I flashbacks those memories, I suddenly realize that I’ve reached the second half of my 20s. Really, I’m very astonished by how time passed by just like that. Especially with the fast changes in the world, many of us feel that 24 hours are not enough to finish the day. Sometimes I feel I was chased. Apparently, when I’m online I tend to compare my story to the others that I saw on social media. Especially with almost everyone around my age is getting married, I feel I was rushed to do the same by society unconsciously. To get rid of those bad thoughts I tend to limit my time online and I prefer watching drama or listening to music. For these past months, I realized that I suddenly forgot how to take it slow. I used to enjoy my life very well. I know how to keep my pace with time, but now I think I’m facing burnout. Well, surely time is ticking and life is short, but it is important to take a rest.
Recently, I flashed back to the day without a smartphone. It took several years before I got to upgrade my phone. But now, within a year the big smartphone companies launched their upgraded product twice, which means many “tech-savvy” people need to upgrade their gear frequently. We didn’t realize that actually we are chased by the name “technology advancement”. Many people are afraid to be left out of the current trend and not going to lie, I sometimes feel that too. Actually, it’s really hard to keep up with the trend, but it’s a life skill that everyone should have in this 21st century. Also, since everyone has a “time is money” kind of mindset, everything instant is more preferable. But not everything can happen instantly. Even to produce instant foods took a lot of time for research until its finally ready in the market. Instead of “time is money”, I prefer “nothing comes instantly”. This mindset helps me in appreciating the process and enjoy the time until it worked out as I expected. One of my life mentors always said that “a process won’t betray the result”. Think about the chicken soup in the package and the chicken soup made by your mom. The process is different, so does the taste. Your mom probably has to boil the whole chicken to get the flavorful stock, while the packaged one was only a chicken stock kind of flavor. Enjoying the process means you appreciate the time.
I believe everyone has ever wanted to stop the time because you wanted to experience the moment longer. On the other hand, sometimes we wanted time to go faster, because we wanted to pass by that moment as soon as possible, like this pandemic time. I really wanted to move forward to pandemic-free days ahead, which is very unpredictable. But again, time cannot be arranged by human power. Well, I know not every moment is fantastic, but I believe that it will be a great lesson or a memory to remember eventually. Quoting a line from Jennifer (not me, okay?) in “Still 17”,
“it (time) passes by on its own, however, time never comes back. Anyone can be sad about time passing by. Will you leave that sadness into regret or will you leave it as a memory you want to remember?”
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| Credits: Ramyeoncaps via Tumblr |
(Still 17, Ep.8)
A little bit off-track, but there is one memorable moment that I regretted and it taught me a very great lesson. It’s when I didn’t follow my friend’s request to watch Park Seojun fan meeting when we went to Seoul in 2016. At that time, I said to her that I don’t quite like him (since I watched him in Hwarang and it was a total turn-off. Also, I haven’t watched his previous dramas and the One Night Two Days Hwarang Special episode yet that time). I feel terribly sorry to my friend and now I was trapped in Park Seojun’s charm (in Lee Young Joon’s language it’s the spectacular curse). As you probably know, I’m a huge fan of him now. Even though, until now, my friend still mad at me for remembering that incident but, it taught me that everything has its own timing. What is not fit for you now, doesn’t mean it won’t fit you in the future. Look at Brave Girls’ song that went viral 4 years later after it was released. So, don’t get discouraged too fast, because eventually or someday it might change. Just like how seasons change when it’s time, so do our lives.
Timing is very important, but we tend to overlook it. Well, some things happened in the most unexpected way and it is beyond our control. So, “when is the right time?” might pop up next. My answer is I don’t know. I just let it flow. One thing for sure that I knew everyone has their own time and timing, which I believe arranged by God. He is never too early or too late. He planned everything out for each person. It is just humans are too late to realize or have a high expectation or they don't want to wait. As I enter the 20s, I came to realize that God’s time is too good to be true. I never expect that I’ll be able to finish my university with a double degree, joined student organization, became a winner of a guiding competition twice, and many more grateful events. I also started doing mini vlogmas on my Instagram in 2018 which I got to record what are the things I’m grateful for in the month of December. Looking back at those events of my life, I can see and feel how good God is.
Realizing how God guides me in my life, I really appreciate time more nowadays. I took every chance that I get just because I don’t want to regret it later on. One thing that I think I did a great job is when I took every chance I can to travel in 2019. Almost every month I went traveling and a year later who knows that we have to stay at home? Also, I tend not to procrastinate (but I did this a lot at work lol). I am very aware that procrastinating took a lot of energy and it makes me tired and it results in wasting my time. I know it’s hard (especially at the workplace) but I started to brush off that bad habit of mine, just because time is very important. Well, I have to admit that I’m really bad with time management also, (but it is a very crucial skill that everyone should have actually) as you know by how long it took me to upload a regular posting on the blog or my video channel. Lately, I feel so bad at it, even though I have regular scheduled activities every day. And I really hate myself for it sometimes. I read some posts on the internet on how to manage time effectively, how to be a more organized person, and much more, but as soon as I took action for it, I failed most of it. But, I didn’t want to be hard on myself since my life has been pretty hard lately. Changes take time and since I appreciate the time, I will take it easy.
Since time always moves, it makes life more dynamic. Think of a cycle or the four seasons. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are sad. I wanted to share a playlist of mine that reminds me that everything happened at the right time at the right moment and everything will fall beautifully in its place.
Well, there are pros and cons about time. But, remember two things. One, time heals. Just remember this whenever you are hurt, broken, or lonely because you are not in that condition forever. Everything we have in this world is temporary. Remember, time moves faster than you can imagine. Two, life is short, just fill in your days with the good thing and let it flow. It’s okay if you take it slow, but you should be happy. Use your energy to do what makes you alive and do not expect everything to be instant. Beautiful things don’t come easily.
Enjoy your time!
Xoxo,
Jennifer
Further Redadings:
https://nymag.com/arts/books/reviews/till-roenneberg-internal-time-2012-5/
https://hbr.org/2020/01/time-management-is-about-more-than-life-hacks
https://jennicpark.blogspot.com/2016/12/life-what-ive-learned-and-thankful-for.html
