I’ve been thinking about my college years and what I learned during my time there, inside or outside the classroom. My Natural Science I (Physics) professor introduced the concept of spacetime and told my class that Earth’s motion seen in spacetime was a spiral rather than an ellipse (each moment has a unique place in space and time, thus never quite duplicated). According to the theory of general relativity, Earth travels around the Sun because the Sun’s mass curves spacetime around it, making other bodies move within this curvature. The greater the mass of an object, the more curved spacetime around it becomes. Just as objects travel the straightest lines possible within curved spacetime (i.e., a spiral), could it be possible that our lives also progress in a spiral?

In our lives, we revolve around what bears the most importance to us (e.g., family, career, money, God), but we do not remain at a standstill. Each event in life is a unique combination of past experience and present time.

I’m at a point in my life where recent situations have begun to echo past experiences. Let me be a little less vague about the “recent situations.” People I met seven years ago (yup, in my college days) have resurfaced: former orgmates, classmates, and blockmates; a rebuffed suitor; and some friends from film screenings I used to attend in the university. At the same time, these days I’m experiencing general feelings of wanting independence from my parents and I’ve had to rebuff another suitor: these were things that happened seven years ago as well. If you’re like me and you believe there’s a purpose to why things happen, then you (I mean, I) have got to start asking, “What should I be doing differently this time around?”

That question is important, especially since this time around I’m no longer a sixteen-year-old in her second year of college. I told Adam last week, “You ever feel like you’re at a certain point where one decision could determine how the rest of your life goes?” He said some wise words: “Enjoy it; it’s a good time to be in. Just remember, whatever you do decide, don’t lose sight of who you are.”

“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana

Tags: Introspection

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