Your mention of the Samoan jump across the International Date Line reminds me of Umberto Eco’s The Island of the Day Before. The setting of the book is the 17th century aboard the wreck of a Dutch ship in the Pacific Ocean. The ship is just off the coast of an island, and between the two lies the International Date Line—hence “the island of the day before”. Eco plays with the notion of time skilfully, manipulating it through flashbacks and hallucinatory episodes of the main character. It’s an exquisite novel—not my favourite of his, but quite interesting when it comes to this topic.

I guess my disagreement with the linearity of time is this idea that there are all these other mes out there who are now inaccessible—the past selves. And since time is linear, our past is inextricably entangled with our memory. Some events stick with us years after they occurred, while others fade, blur, and mix together. Linear time makes the past fallible.

But as you say, there is a danger to wishing time away in anticipation for events yet to come. I know that feeling all too well tonight, exhausted as I am with course work: “it will be over soon!”. But with that ending comes other endings I don’t want to rush—new friends leaving to return to their homes far away, and decisions about employment to be made. Try as I might, however, I can’t quite bring myself to “live in the moment”, as people say. The past and future are just so fascinating! Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I live in the moment, but I plan for the future, and I try to appreciate the past.

Shayma: Thank you – happy 2012!

Lan: I know, I leapt with joy when I found an bag of organic ones – but the juice is potent enough that you can get by without the zest. Welcome home.

maria, thank you for sharing such a deeply personal story.