Time

Time

This past week the EYA cohort visited the Big Apple! I have been to NY before on a few family trips and I enjoyed this trip just as much as my previous visits. Each time I travel to a major city, especially with a group, I feel that we never have time to do everything. Every city has so much to explore and attempting to see everything in a short amount of time can be accomplishing yet physically exhausting. This is exactly what happened in New York on our free day.

The group attended seminars the Thursday and Friday that our group was in New York. We explored global migration and the processes behind being an immigrant or refugee. We related historical and recent events to each other, which was really eye opening. It seems that historically discrimination and injustice repeats itself but is just applied to a different group of people over and over again. Our visit to the UN was also a powerful experience. I am always in awe when I get to experience places where great decisions are made. We got to step into the the Council areas and view where the important meetings are held.

Saturday was our free day and we used it well. I tagged along with Skye, Julliane, and Jasna to several different places around NY. We started out around 7:30 am and returned after 8pm. It was a long day. However, we got to see so many different parts of NY and view the different cultures each area had to offer.

From the past week and following into this week I’ve been thinking a lot about time. Time is such a valuable aspect in our lives. Personally, I can stress myself out about the time I need to do things to the point where I just drop everything and take a nap. Sometimes it feels as if there isn’t even time to rest. If you really think about it we, as a society, are almost always on a schedule. Is there time to do this? To do that? What about time to relax? Time to work. Time to sleep. Time to catch up on the things you missed while you were asleep. It can become overwhelming and exhausting to just think about the time we need to live our lives. But that's where the catch comes in for me.

Jesus created the time for us to rest and enjoy the lives we are created for. Every person and opportunity in my life is a part of the plan He has for me. My time is God’s time and the way that I spend it is important. Yes, life can have its challenges and can potentially become overwhelming but that’s not how we are supposed to live our lives. A life concentrated on the limited time we can devote to anything can honestly become a waste. We shouldn’t focus on how time can run out but on the things we can do with the time we have. Opportunities come and go and if we are focused on the things we need to do we can miss what is right in from of our eyes. So I think from today on I’ll start seeing the time I have for its full potential. Including some nap times.

Iris Gadsden

July 9th Blog Post