Creeping up on me is the last month of my 5 month quasi-backpacker holiday. Time really does fly when you’re having fun – everyone’s least favourite phenomenon.
Travel is the best way to make time (and money) fly. I have seen things I still can’t process as real – yes, I’m talking about Whitehaven Beach – managed to enjoy sushi, met people from corners of the world I didn’t know existed and swam in pools in amazing locations, like a rainforest. All this spanned over a series of months and yet, I’ve still fallen victim to time’s cruelest side-effect.
Holidays always speed past us in a blur of good food, UV rays and adventure. Before we know it, it’s the end and we’re thinking, ‘where did all those days go?’ That’s me right now. Science theorises that the wiring of our brains causes these feelings; it emphasise the short and long-term recollection of joyful memories while shrinking memories of life’s monotony. Our brains sun dry monotony until it is raisin small, while joy is watered until it is watermelon big.
I write this as I sit on a Monday morning plane to Fiji. Fiji, a destination I’ve been organising to visit for months, has abruptly turned up to the party and it feels way too early. I wasn’t expecting the early arrival so I haven’t even had time to lay out some nibbles.
Sat here now, I wish I could learn to recollect holidays and the exciting planning period that precedes them through a slo-mo lens. I wonder if I can ever retrain the way my brain recollects memories. But science tells me this isn’t likely.
Perhaps somewhere in its harsh truths, science is telling me the only way to ease the travel-induced pain of time flying is to never stop.
