General Relativity

So it’s no doubt that Einstein was a genius, achieving so much for physics with his one grand notion that time itself was relative depending on your movement. He did far more than explain something that was physically accurate but also explained something that is psychologically true as well. When you are bored and not “moving” much, time seems to go at a snail’s pace as you stare at the second hand tick by, however when you are out and about having fun with friends, and “moving” - time seems to rush by and you wonder what happened to the last few hours. Funnily enough, psychologically, time is relative as an inverse of Einstein’s physical general relativity.

Recently it seems i have felt the full blunt of such relativity. The past three months of summer went by without much thought and once back in the routine of university life, it seems that time still fails to slow. Four weeks into the semester and time has accelerated well beyond my understanding of course content. A roommate of mine commented that perhaps as we age time seems to go faster, but it’s always interesting whether or not this is the product of understanding and awareness, or a product of psychological general relativity. Perhaps as we age, we can grasp the idea of passing time; that our life here is limited and that in a certain quantifiable amount of time, events will occur that we must schedule and plan. Perhaps this awareness of time is what causes us to feel as though time is slipping away faster because we observe it, almost like the uncertainty principle, where our observations themselves have changed the outcome. Otherwise it is like general relativity where because our lives become overrun with responsibilities and schedules, and the mere fact that we are “moving” in this rat race at an increasingly fast pace is what is causing time to feel like it’s passing faster as we age. As a child, there was no need to do much outside school and the usual after school shenanigans.

Relativity aside, another big concern involves social order and experiences. Summer became an icon for our childhood, as i am sure it does for any young adult. This especially stressed in 21 and over with its major point being that old friends should always be maintained and cherished; that youth is something that should be cherished for as long as possible especially during the summer. Indeed the summer after graduating high school was my “perfect” summer and it is unlikely that any will come close, but every summer should be spent trying. The real question is that in one, two, maybe five years, will the social order of your high school group remain intact? Will the opportunities to meet up, drink and eat like good old times still exist? The past summer has reinforced to me the most important point - effort is the number one quality that allows friendships to remain, and although you can only give such a limited number this quality, you should never judge your friends by its quantity but by its quality because at the end of the day, even if you have one or two friends, you can have them for years to come, and hopefully once again experience a summer close to perfection.

Taking some time away from “moving” so bye.