Everything will end

one day

It has struck me recently that all of this will end.

These busy nights, shared laughter, and silent walks. All of it will end. Maybe not for a while. But it will end all the same.

I apologize if this realization seems obvious. It seems obvious to me at times too. But this feeling, the feeling of truly, truly grasping how fleeting life is, comes and goes. In a month, this feeling will have left me. But one day, it will inevitably come back and I will wonder where everybody I once knew is now.

I hope that writing this can help, in any way possible, capture that feeling. The feeling I get near the end of the school year, when I’m reminded once again that time really does fly, that we are 25% done with college (twenty-five percent!), that soon we will enter a new stage of life, that some people in my life now will leave it in a week.

It is a peculiar feeling. A feeling that makes you yearn for people you don’t even know that well, that makes you think “I will miss you.” A feeling you get gazing upon a campus that thousands of seniors are preparing to leave for good. A feeling that even if you are not so close to somebody, knowing you might never see them again is painful.

I sometimes think of our lives as curves. Curves on a graph that travel, intersect, and diverge. Most of our relationships are not as tragic as parallel lines, who, despite being so similar, never once meet, nor are they as tragic as perpendicular lines, who never cross again after their first encounter. But they are tragic all the same.

We never get the time we spend with other people back. One day, we will all graduate, move to different cities, and begin different chapters of our lives. Of course, you may keep in touch with your closest friends. You might stop by an old friend’s city for a business trip. But it may never be the same. And try as we might, most people in our lives are simply not here to stay. And there’s nothing wrong with that. After all, we are all walking our own paths.

But cherish the time you have now. Take that detour if it means you can walk with them a little while longer. Hang around after an org meeting even if it means a little less sleep. Laugh and cry with your friends at 4 a.m. even if it’s not “productive.” Get lunch with the juniors and seniors in your life, because one day they will be gone and one day you will leave too. And that day is not so far away.

Of course, balance matters. Don’t flunk your exams. But remember that all of our relationships have a timer on them, and our relationships are really all we have. We are surrounded by incredible people, who all have their own histories, anxieties, and hopes and dreams. And how beautiful is it to have met each other, when one small decision a year ago may have made your paths completely diverge? And how beautiful is it to share a part of your life with them, and for them to share the same with you?

I’m not saying that you should live your whole life with this feeling, 24/7. It would probably make living in the present quite difficult. But every now and then, it’s good to remember that all of this will end one day. And that we may not get more time.

And that we should keep what we can of each other in our hearts.