Just 5 more minutes. 4 On the playground, 3 in front of the TV, 2 in waking up for school, and 1 more for lingering in the doorway of your best friend’s house.
I would often wonder why our family gatherings used to take so long. Why the goodbyes, which were supposed to be done and dusted 20 minutes ago, still persisted even with one foot out the door. It always used to annoy me with their laughs, last minute gossip and the never ending hugs.
I think it’s because of the fact that we always think we have longer. As Charles Dickens once said “Procrastination is the thief of time; collar him!”. We always think time waits for us and we’re not getting lost in it. But see that’s where we’re wrong. Longer is never definite, never promised and not once vowed. And even though it’s never vowed, we find comfort in it. The idea that maybe, just maybe,a little longer might exist and we might get to be surprised each time.
That’s why time is such a funny game. 5 minutes in a class can feel like hours but 5 minutes with your favorite people can feel like mere seconds. We always seem to wish that time would go faster but at the same time , in the future we could have just a little bit more of it.
I think about these 5 minutes a lot in my life. The times I’ve tried to beg my mom for 5 minutes on the playgrounds for one more slide, The times I’ve binged my favourite shows until remembering I have assignments due. The times I’ve spent fighting with my sister over turning the lights off in our shared room, for 5 minutes of extra sleep on a Monday morning.
But growing up changed everything. I was now the runner passing the playground burning the calories of today’s dinner. The cartoons now play in the background where my baby cousins lay sprawled out binging while I cram homework, and I almost, just almost miss waking up bright and early for school but still fighting with my sister. The long goodbyes with family start to make sense. They were never really goodbyes, but rather just reasons to stay. One more piece of drama, one more cup of tea, but definitely not the last hug. Ironic isn’t it?
It’s contradictory honestly, how much valuable things seem to be once they’re gone. We spend so much of our childhood wanting to do “grown up things”, our teen years hoping to get older and get independence, and now as a freshly turned 20 year old , I can confidently, say that we spend our adulthood wishing to be a teenager with no consequences again. We always seem to be torn between letting go and wanting more. Life is just one big irony and we’re just the jesters reinforcing it throughout. It’s human nature after all.
So next time, please ask me to linger longer in your doorway, please squeeze out the last bit of gossip you forgot to mention, beat the dead horse, bruise it even. Just for 5 more minutes.