Lessons Time Taught Me
This flash essay is part of a collaborative, constrained-writing challenge undertaken by some members of the Bangalore Substack Writers Group. Each of us examined the concept of ‘TIME’ through our unique perspective, distilled into roughly 400 words. At the bottom of this snippet, you’ll find links to other essays by fellow writers.
Isn’t it cute how we humans set alarms for tomorrow, make plans for the coming week, and save money for a trip we hope to take a year from now?
Time, in its scarcity and flow, reflects the very human ideals of hope and resilience. Imagine a world where we knew we would live forever. Would we still work as hard? That’s why we’ve all heard things like “you only live once”—because life is too short to waste on things that don’t bring us joy.
Time has a way of teaching us to value it. When we go through hard times, when we desperately wish for the hardships to end, life and time together teach us patience—the art of staying put. And yet, deep down, we know this too shall pass. That very knowledge offers comfort. It gives hope that there will be a tomorrow to return, to fight back, and to keep going.
When we are at our best, enjoying life as if it will last forever, time gently reminds us that all good things come to an end. And only when nostalgia hits us like a truck do we realize that those moments are never coming back. Time passes. Time flows. Perhaps it is our understanding of time that makes us human—to be kind, to be helpful, and to give while we still can.
People told me time heals everything. “Give it time,” they said. “It gets better.” And yes, it did get better. But did time truly heal me? Or did it just make us familiar with the pain that once broke us? Now it merely aches. It lingers, like an echo—a strange silhouette of what it used to be. Time heals, but not always in the way we expect.
Time travel as a concept has always fascinated me. As a science student who grew up reading science fiction, I often wished I could go back in time and fix my mistakes. But over the years, I’ve come to realize that I am who I am because of all those experiences. Going back would mean losing parts of myself. And that’s another lesson time has taught me: no matter what, the only way is forward.
Check out these fantastic essays by my fellow writers that you won't want to miss!
“So… When will shit actually hit the fan?” by Sailee, sunny climate stormy climate
Time: I Just Want to See It, Watch It Move by Abhishek Singh, The Comic Dreamer
Timekeepers - Retracing the Universe’s Deep-Time Signatures by Devayani Khare, Geosophy
Keeping Time by Reshma Apte, Fanciful Senorita
Locating Myself In The Map of Time by Priyanka Sacheti, A Home For Homeless Thoughts
The Thing We Pretend To Understand by Avinash Shenoy, OfftheWalls
The lost intimacy with time by Siddharth Batra, Siddharth’s substack
Lessons Time Taught Me by Aryan Kavan Gowda, Wonderings of a Wanderer
A Time for Worship by Vaibhav Gupta, Thorough and Unkempt
“Tata Mummy Tata” by Rakhi Anil, Rakhi’s Substack
The vicious cycle of sixteen - A dancer’s take on keeping time by Eshna Benegal, The Deep Cut
How long is twenty years? by Richa Vadini Singh, Here’s What I Think
How mystery writers play with the clock by Gowri N Kishore, About Murder, She Wrote
TIME INFLATED, JUSTICE DEFLATED. by Lavina G, The Nexus Terrain
What keeps the fool in me delighted by Rahul Singh, Mehfil
The endless ebb and flow of Time by Siddarth RG, Siddarth’s Newsletter
Time, please! by Shaili Desai - Litcurry
So raw and beautiful 💖
To realize the value of time at a young age is very important. Time travel fascinates me too, but not to go back and fix something, but to travel across galaxies, the Brahmand, as they say!
It is good to remind ourselves, daily, that we are mortal!