I swear, when I was a kid, one year felt super long. Waiting for school holidays felt like forever. Waiting for the birthday is also forever. Even a one-hour class already felt like an entire lifetime. And I kept waiting for recess because, honestly, the food was already the main motivation to get through school.
But now? Suddenly, it is already June. Then, somehow, another few blinks later, “Eh, Christmas already ah?”, “Wait, wasn’t it just January?” And then suddenly New Year again. New year, new age, new responsibilities, and you know, laaa suddenly got a random knee pain package included also.
Honestly, one thing that always shocks me nowadays is meeting old friends again. Especially friends who already have kids. In my head, I still remember their children as small toddlers running around everywhere. Then, suddenly, one day you meet them again, and the kid is already in middle school, like, excuse me? Since when.
Meanwhile, single me standing there feeling like I suddenly became a great-grandma already. I think moments like this really make me realize how fast time is moving. Sometimes I don’t notice it day by day, but once I see people I haven’t met in years, suddenly everything hits me at once. Friends becoming parents. The babies are growing up. Everyone is already entering different phases of life.
And me still counting the never-ending commitments that somehow keep following me into every new. Meanwhile, in my brain, everyone still looks the same as years ago. The older we get, the faster time feels moving. And surprisingly, there is actually some psychology behind this, not just adult stress and suffering.
One reason is that our brain pays more attention to new experiences. When we were kids, almost everything felt new. New school year, new friends, new games, new places. Because our brain was constantly processing fresh experiences, those periods created richer and more memorable experiences. Researchers suggest that novelty and memory formation play an important role in how we perceive the passage of time (Scientific American, 2024; Psychology Today, 2017).
But adulthood becomes very repetitive sometimes. Wake up. Go work. Come back tired. Scroll phone. Sleep. Repeat tomorrow. When days become too similar, our brain creates fewer distinct memories, which makes weeks and months feel like they pass much faster. But adulthood becomes very repetitive sometimes. Wake up. Go to work. Come back tired. Scroll phone. Sleep. Repeat tomorrow. When days become too similar, our brain forms fewer distinct memories, which can make weeks and months feel as though they pass more quickly in retrospect (Scientific American, 2024; Psychology Today, 2017).
Another explanation is something called the proportional theory of time perception. Basically, when you are 10 years old, one year feels like a really big deal because it represents a large portion of your life so far. But when you are 30, 40, or older, one year becomes a much smaller fraction of your overall life experience. Some researchers and writers have used this idea to explain why time appears to speed up as we age (Smithsonian Magazine, 2018; The Conversation, 2018).
I think technology and social media make it even worse nowadays. Sometimes we spend hours scrolling without even realizing how much time has passed. One minute watching cat videos. Next minute already 2 am. And somehow adulthood is always busy. Even during weekends, people are still mentally working. Thinking about Monday, commitments, unfinished tasks, replying to messages, life problems, and bosses who somehow miss us more during weekends than weekdays.
Maybe that is why many adults, especially me, suddenly become nostalgic, too. Sometimes we are not actually missing the past itself. We are missing how slow life used to feel. Back then, evenings felt longer. School holidays felt endless. Sitting outside doing nothing also somehow felt peaceful. Nowadays, if we sit quietly for five minutes, our hands automatically reach for the phone already.
Now everyone is rushing. Rushing to work. Rushing to reply. Rushing to grow. Rushing through life until sometimes we forget to actually experience it properly. Maybe that is why people always say, “Enjoy the moment.”
Because one day, even this current phase of life will probably feel fast and distant, too. Quite sad but also quite beautiful if you think about it.
References
1. Scientific American. Why Does Time Seem to Speed Up with Age?
2. Psychology Today. Why Time Seems to Speed Up as We Age
3. Smithsonian Magazine. Why Does Time Seem to Speed Up with Age?
4. The Conversation. Why Time Flies as We Get Older
https://theconversation.com/why-time-flies-as-we-get-older-103789
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