The Second Half

I tried something new with my boarding pass last week, I sent it to my phone. This was not only green, but very savvy in my opinion. I could see the curious glances as I approached the security check point with just my identification and my phone. (I was lucky I spotted someone else do this earlier or I would have just handed my phone to the TSA agent) I held my phone over the scanner, went through security and proceeded to the gate. I wondered what would happen if my phone ran out of batteries before I cleared the gate agent, but my phone told me I had almost half of the charge left.

This is where myself and my phone had a misunderstanding... Wouldn't you think that if my phone had been on for 10 hours and the indicator showed me a picture of "almost" half full that would give me at least another 5 hours? This is not true! Apparently the second half of battery life follows a completely different formula, it changes into something I can only imagine is like dog years. Fifteen minutes before boarding I get the dreaded flashing battery. Fortunately I was able to get on the plane before it shut down, but it did get me thinking about the second half.

The second half of many things go so much faster than the first(this does not just apply to batteries). People I have met just a few years ago now claim to have known me for fifteen. My young teenage son is turning 20 on Friday and apparently I will be celebrating 27 years of marriage in May. I know it is cliché but where did the time go and why is it speeding up? I decided to check the oracle (Google) and here is what I learned:

Scientists have theories and one of them is that when you experience something for the very first time, more details, more information gets stored in your memory. That's because when it's the "first", there are so many things to remember. The list of encoded memories is so dense, reading them back gives you a feeling that they must have taken forever. But that's an illusion. "It's a construction of the brain," says Dr. Eagleman. "The more memory you have of something, you think, 'Wow, that really took a long time! So, first memories are dense. The routines of later life are sketchy. The past wasn't really slower than the present. It just feels that way.

Well, this is a very helpful discovery! I understand now that to slow down the passing of time I must begin to que up some new firsts. A "time stopper" list for the coming years... Let me know what you would put on your list.

This is going to be fun!