All the Time in the World

I applied to write for my college magazine in late February, and I had my first article published in the March/April 2009 issue. Here is the article I wrote!

In May 2008, I went to Moshi, Tanzania, with some members of my high school class, to volunteer at a nursery school that we raised money for. I have many fantastic memories from that trip, but one of the things that has stayed with me from my experience in Tanzania is the concept of having all the time in the world to enjoy day-to-day tasks. I have long since been accustomed to hurriedly rushing from place to place, not bothering to make eye contact with strangers and aiming for as little interaction as possible with those that I encountered as I went about my day to day business. No matter how productive I was, it never seemed as though I had enough time each day to finish everything I wanted to complete. 24 is not enough hours in a day, and I’ve always wished that somehow, more hours would magically appear in a day so that I would no longer feel stressed and pressured to finish everything in a certain timeframe.

There is a Kiswahili expression, “Pole-pole,” which translates to “Slowly, slowly,” or “Take it easy.” “Pole-pole” sums up my experience with time in Tanzania. Everything in Tanzania was so laid back, so relaxed, and there was never a shortage of time. It didn’t matter if things were running late, or if there was no set schedule for the day. Tanzania ran on its own time, and it was such a nice change to be in charge of time and conduct my day accordingly, rather than let time be in charge. I never had to check my watch and fret over running late, or skip lunch because I was too rushed to sit down and take the time to eat. Whenever something didn’t go according to plan, no one was running around, frantically trying to make arrangements so that all of our free time was put to use. Instead, everyone took their time in sorting out new arrangements, taking care to enjoy each moment of the day, even if part of the original plan had to be switched around. And even though it was as if everyone was utterly carefree, it wasn’t as if there was no regard for the concept of time at all. There just wasn’t the mentality of having to adjust things for time, but rather adjusting time to suit whatever needed to be done.

Since returning from Tanzania, I’ve tried to relax when it comes to the concept of time. I try not to rush whatever I have to do, and not panic whenever I run out of time or things go wrong. It’s hard, though, and more often than not I find myself stressing out whenever the smallest thing doesn’t go according to plan. Whenever that happens, I try to remember the calm feeling of serenity and assurance I felt in Tanzania that somehow, everything would be okay. Sometimes, letting go and allowing things to take care of themselves is the best thing you can do.

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.