Time Slips Away

Humans are the strangest creatures.

Some become obsessed with their pasts, others with their futures. It's all the same, more or less, with people letting their present slip away until it becomes only a whisper in the past.

There's more than a trillion beautiful ideas, places, and concepts in this world, and almost every human gets hooked on the same, plain idea. Time.

Appreciation of time is no problem. However, this becomes a problem when you forsake what's right in front of you for a time that's already passed that you will never see again.

Marie was no exception. She lived a normal life, going to school like every other teenager, and then she'd return home and her thoughts were consumed by a distant time.

She'd never lived in the time of flappers and Jazz, yet she knew more than most who had.

Marie hadn't always been fixated on the past but always longed to live another life. Humans always do, blind to what is right in front of their eyes.

It all started in the most ordinary of places. School. A regular 5th-grade history class. Marie had never cared for history until that day.

When she heard the melodies of the 1920s for the first time ever, she was stunned. Music notes blended in with the thoughts in her head.

Never in her life had Marie felt longing like she did at that moment. This moment hadn't felt so magical to anyone else, but somehow it meant everything to Marie.

She knew that she had to learn more, and was determined to sacrifice anything to do so.

There her obsession with the past started, like so many before and her and undoubtedly so many who will come after her.

When Marie returned home on that crisp autumn evening, instead of playing outside or talking to friends, she spent the entire night researching.

Every birthday and holiday from then on, she transformed her surroundings to look more and more like a scene out of the 1920s. Lights, colors, furniture. Anything you could name, she had decorated.

Marie became so obsessed that she no longer even acknowledged the fact that she was in the present.

In fact, soon enough not even the people in her present, her friends and family, were enough to tether her to where she was.

Every action she made, every step she took, and every lingering moment was spent pondering on a time of the past while her own present slipped away.

The day where this fixation ended started like every other. Marie had her nose buried in a book as she walked a block to her high school. She had no one to walk with, not that she minded.

Marie was used to it. She didn't want to be friends with anyone anyways. She didn't have enough time nor did she care enough to think about the present.

On this particular day, Marie was especially looking forward to history. They were finally approaching the 1900's.

The day passed by ever too slow, but finally, it was time for her favorite class of the day, History with Ms. Leith.

However, as time passed on and on, Marie only grew more restless. All her teacher was talking about was the bad of the 1920s. She couldn't take this slander that felt so personal to her.

This angered Marie to no end until she couldn't take it anymore.

"Enough!", she exclaimed, getting up from her seat. Her classmates turned around to face her and started whispering.

Marie was suddenly very aware of just how many people were in her class.

"Is there a reason for this inappropriate outburst?" Ms. Leith put down her textbook and approached Marie with an aggravated expression on her face. She hadn't expected this of Marie.

"Well," Marie's voice trembled as she spoke, "You keep looking at all of the negatives of the 1920s. The 1920s were the epitome of perfect!" She moved her hands to emphasize her emotions.

Ms. Leith's scowl quickly turned into a confused frown. Quietly, she told Marie to meet her after class.

Marie sat back down and slumped into her seat. Great, she thought. She'd have to spend extra time in this dreadful school.

The bell rang, and students started gathering their things. Marie just slumped even farther into her seat.

"Why do you talk so much about a time from the past?", Ms. Leith sat down on a desk and clasped her hands together.

"Well," Marie paused for a moment collecting her thoughts, "I should have been born then. I feel like I'm connected to there somehow". Marie felt stupid saying it out loud and looked up at Ms. Leith to see her reaction.

Ms. Leith had a strange expression on her face, that confused Marie. It almost seemed like a look of understanding.

"You can't live your life in the past. One day your gonna look up, and you'll be 50 and have done absolutely nothing." Ms. Leith stared out a window absentmindedly. She fiddled with a ring on her right hand.

Marie hadn't thought of it like that.

"You have to move on." Ms. Leith said, and let her leave.

Ms. Leith hoped she had gotten through to Marie. Marie wasn't the only one who had been obsessed with the past, and Ms. Leith hoped it wasn't too late for Marie.

Ms. Leith was also once obsessed with a distant time, and her entire life had passed her by while she pined for another life.

Thankfully for Marie, Ms. Leith had.

Marie entered her house like she usually did, but nothing would ever feel the same again. Marie took down everything reminiscent of another time, and by the end, her house looked bare and new. In a way, it was. Marie was starting fresh.

Marie felt like an hourglass that was running out, and this gave value to the time she had.

At the end of the day, time is everywhere and impossible to escape, so never forget to value the present, as time slips away so incredibly fast.