Time flies when...

It's now been just over 10 weeks since I returned from Costa Rica, approximately the same amount of time I spent living and learning abroad. Because I began working immediately upon my return, I wasn't granted much time to transition, I was simply thrust back into the rat race. It was December, the holidays were approaching and I was broke. I worked 6 days a week, moving my father's business to a new, more customer friendly location while simultaneously operating the new store so that I could afford gifts and life. This was in the midst of coaching a youth basketball team, battling jet lag and cold weather, and the ever-present temptation of catching up with friends.  Add on a legal battle because my father rented a location next door to one of his biggest competitiors in a space not zoned for retail on top of one of the snowiest winters on record and you have the time period that is my winter of 2010-2011. This is what I came home for?

The funny thing is, the past 3 months have gone by faster than any other period in my life except maybe my 4 years in college. I'm reminded me of the old cliche, "time flies when your'e having fun". Im thinking maybe I should ammend that. I wouldn't call the last 3 months "fun" by any means, but it sure is Hell went by fast. The 10 weeks I spent in Costa Rica were fun, and that time dragged on like a trip to the dentist. Ticos, along with people from SoCal, Florida, the Caribbean, and those hailing from other places considered paradise seem to adopt a different mentality than those from the northeast. In Costa Rica they called it "Tico Time", and the only rule is that time doesn't dictate life. Rather, life dictates time. Ticos see time as an ever-moving constant created by man to make us more productive. This idea was born around the same time as capitalism and the phrases "if it don't make dollars it don't make sense" and "time means money". It seems to me that when you are enjoying your time you don't think about how fast it is passing because you don't even consider looking at a watch. On the other hand, when you're rushing to an appointment or sitting in traffic, you're fully aware of how much time you have or have lost. It actually has nothing to do with fun. In the movie "Deep Blue Sea", poet LL Cool J has an ingenious take on time and the theory of relativity. LL says, "Grab hold of a hot pan, second can seem like an hour. Put your hands on a hot woman, an hour can seem like a second. It's all relative".

Back to the original issue; when does time fly? As humans we don't give ourselves enough credit. We are highly-evolved, intelligent beings, at least on paper. We actually have the ability to speed up and slow down time based on how effectively mindful we are of it. Unfortunately, success is measured by productivity, so in striving for material triumph one needs to always be conscious of time. Ticos are constantly  less mindful of it, and in turn, don't speed it up or slow it down, simply letting it be. It was that ignorance that allowed me to let time slowly pass me by. Now I'm living the American Dream, or perhaps just the infant stages of it? In the grand scheme, 3 months is such a small sample size, certainly not enough to determine the future, but enough to know I'm onto something. The reason for my optimism is the way time has passed since being home. Time flies when you're using it productively....