5 more minutes.....

During this week, Wednesday to through Friday because of the festive seasons for our Muslims friends. Sadly, work got in the way of the holiday and I had to put aside all other plans I had for the three days and use the time to rush out some urgent matters for my superior. I expanded a fair bit of energy and effort to turnaround everything by the end of Friday so I could still have the weekend to myself.

Saturday evening was surprisingly cooling and I decided to had of to a nearby park to take a sit and enjoy the quietness. I haven't been fishing to close to a year now after my fishing mate went overseas to further his studies.

At the park, I shared the bench with a middle aged man who looked intently over this girl of maybe 5 or 6 years of age, who was cycling around the park. To kill boredom I thought I might as well break the silence and asked him, "Is that your daughter?". He replied with a nice smile, "Yup! That's my girl!".

It was reaching about 6 in the evening and he decided to call his daughter back, and his daughter replied "Dad, five more minutes please?". He then said okay. Five minutes went by and when he called his daughter back, she would ask for five more minutes. As I watched the sunset, the little kept asking for five more minutes and he'd say okay. Watching that happen, I made a passing statement, "Geez, you are a very patient father".

He then looked at me, and somehow I could see some sadness in his eyes. He then said, "Three years ago, I had a son who died at her age in a car accident. Being busy with work, I never really spent time with him and now I'd do anything to get just five more minutes with him. I don't want to repeat the mistake I made three years ago. Right now, she thinks she gets five more minutes to cycle, but in fact I get five more minutes to see her play."

After the two of them left when it was close to dark, I think I sat there thinking about what he said for a good half an hour; I snapped out of thinking when I realised some mosquito was biting me in the foot. Know what? Life is about priorities and 5 minutes to us could be a short time, or sometimes even dreadfully precious when work deadline lingers closely around the corner. But, sometimes 5 minutes isn't about rushing things out or meeting deadlines. 5 minutes could mean spending precious time with a loved one or never having a chance to spend that time anymore with a loved one.

Buying time

Having to grow up in a city so commercialised and fast-paced really highlights the issue of not having enough time. More often than not, I hardly get time for anything. Just to give you a rough idea of how my schedule is like:

Weekdays - time is totally devoted for work, if I get to leave work early I use the extra time for revising.

Weekends - I have to attend part time classes that last the whole day (i.e. 2pm to 8pm, 8am to 4pm).

That pretty much sums up how much time I have for myself. Bluntly said, I do not really have life! Time is truly of the essence in situations like this - having no time for oneself is pretty dreadful if you ask me. Time, for me is like a rare commodity that continues to be elusive.

Every now and then, I take a time out and try to ask myself whether am I managing my time badly, or is it simply because there are too many things at hand that are of high priority? Work is no doubt one of the biggest time eaters in my life. Secondly, of course my studies which is also due to work requirements. I make notes, I make reminders, I even plan my time but sometimes I just cannot squeeze out more time for me to do other things. Obviously, there are definitely more things to life than just working and working! I get less time to listen to music and even less time to read books (in case you do not know, I love reading sci-fi books especially books written by Michael Crichton). I bought four books about two months ago and I have just started on one book. From the bottom of my heart, I really miss reading (and it is one of so many things I really want to do).

If buying time was an option, I'd truly buy time~