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  • Zenosyne.

  • It’s actually just after youre born that life flashes before your eyes.

  • Entire aeons are lived in those first few months

  • when you feel inseparable from the world itself,

  • with nothing to do but watch it passing by.

  • At first, time is only felt vicariously,

  • as something that happens to other people.

  • You get used to living in the moment, because there’s nowhere else to go.

  • But soon enough, life begins to move, and you learn to move with it.

  • And you take it for granted that youre a different person every year,

  • Upgraded with a different body

  • ...a different future.

  • You run around so fast, the world around you seems to stand still.

  • Until a summer vacation can stretch on for an eternity.

  • You start to feel time moving forward,

  • learning its rhythm,

  • but now and then it skips a beat.

  • as if your birthday arrives one day earlier every year.

  • We should consider the idea that youth is not actually wasted on the young.

  • That their dramas are no more grand than they should be.

  • That their emotions make perfect sense, once you adjust for inflation.

  • So for someone going through adolescence,

  • life feels epic and tragic simply because it is:

  • every kink in your day could easily warp the arc of your story.

  • Because each year is worth a little less than the last.

  • And with each birthday we circle back,

  • and cross the same point around the sun.

  • and wish each other, 'many happy returns.'

  • But soon you feel the circle begin to tighten,

  • and you realize it’s a spiral,

  • and youre already halfway through.

  • As more of your day repeats itself,

  • you start to cast off dead weight,

  • and feel the steady pull toward your center of gravity,

  • the ballast of memories you hold onto,

  • until it all seems to move under its own inertia.

  • So even when you sit still, it feels like youre running somewhere.

  • And even if tomorrow you will run a little faster,

  • and stretch your arms a little farther

  • youll still feel the seconds slipping away as you drift around the bend.

  • Life is short

  • and life is long

  • but not in that order.

Zenosyne.

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B1 US life stretch circle birthday ballast move

Zenosyne: The Sense That Time Keeps Going Faster

  • 43 4
    Jack posted on 2016/05/13
Video vocabulary

Keywords

sense

US /sɛns/

UK /sens/

  • noun
  • Certain mental feeling or emotion
  • Normal or clear state of mind
  • Meaning of a particular word, phrase or text
  • verb
  • To perceive using sight, sound, taste touch etc.
  • To recognize the presence of something
stretch

US /strɛtʃ/

UK /stretʃ/

  • noun
  • Making arm, leg muscles longer to ease them
  • A consecutive row of things
  • A period of time
  • verb
  • To make your arm, leg muscles long to ease them
  • To make something bigger by pulling on it
life

US /laɪf/

UK /laɪf/

  • noun
  • All the living things e.g. animals, plants, humans
  • Period of time things live, from birth to death
feel

US /fil/

UK /fi:l/

  • verb
  • To be aware of or experience an emotion, sensation
  • To sense through direct contact; touch
day

US /de/

UK /deɪ/

  • noun
  • A period of 24 hours beginning at midnight
  • The period of time when it is light outside
  • Person's name
slip

US /slɪp/

UK /slɪp/

  • noun
  • Act of beginning to fall from losing balance
  • A field position in cricket
  • A quick escape or become free from something
  • Combination of clay and water, used in pottery
  • Occasion when something grows worse or drops lower
  • Minor mistake
  • Thin women's underwear to go under a dress
  • verb
  • To begin to fall as a result of losing balance
  • To escape or become free from something
  • To move from one state to another, usually worse
  • To slide out of place or fall to the ground
  • To occur or pass rapidly
  • To put something in a place quietly and secretly
perfect

US /ˈpɚfɪkt/

UK /'pɜ:fɪkt/

  • adjective
  • Complete; utter.
  • Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.
  • (of a tense) denoting a completed action or an action prior to a specified time.
  • So good it cannot be improved
  • Exactly suitable; ideal.
  • verb
  • To do something so well, it cannot be done better
  • other
  • Bring (something) to the required or desirable state.
year

US /jɪr/

UK /jə:/

  • noun
  • Unit of time equal to 12 months or 365 or 366 days
  • Used to refer to the age of a person
run

US /rʌn/

UK /rʌn/

  • verb
  • To depart or travel according to a schedule
  • To cause an animal to move in a certain direction
  • (Of an engine) to be operating
  • To start or use a computer program
  • To flow in a certain direction, like a liquid
  • To manage or operate a business
  • To operate or drive something
  • (Of a road) to go from one place to another
  • To move your legs faster than walking
  • noun
  • A vertical line of broken stitches in stockings or tights.
  • A large number of fish swimming together to spawn.
  • A score in baseball.
  • A continuous period of success or popularity.
  • Journey between two places made by ship or car
  • The period of time that a play, movie, etc. is shown to the public.
  • An act of running, especially for exercise or pleasure.
  • Series of similar things or successes and failures
  • A prepared course or track for skiing.
  • Act of running; exercise of running
move

US /muv/

UK /mu:v/

  • noun
  • An act or action.
  • A player's turn to play in a game.
  • Act of moving a playing piece in chess, etc.
  • An action; doing something
  • Step taken to achieve a goal
  • other
  • To change position or go from one place to another.
  • To change the place where you live or work.
  • other
  • To cause to change position or go from one place to another.
  • To change the place where something is located.
  • verb
  • To cause someone to have certain emotions
  • To cause something to change to a different place
  • To change where people live or a business operates
  • To take action to do or achieve something