In 1897, Paul Janet put out a theory on time that makes a lot of sense, even though we don't usually think like this.

Time is linear, right? A year is a year, and it is the same amount on repeat for eternity. From our point of view, however, it isn't like that! At the age of 1, a year is 100% of your life. At the age of 2, a year is only 50% of your life. At 3, only 33%, and the pattern goes on.

This makes time logarithmic, which means our perception goes by a 1/N pattern, where N is how many years you've been alive. Instead of your years being 1, 2, 3, etc. they are now 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, etc. This small change leads to an interesting discovery.

Lets assume you live to 100 years old (that last year will be a hundredth of your life), and you added up each of the perceived years (or in fancy math terms, the partial sum). 1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 +...+ 1/100. It equals about 5.18, which is an arbitrary number representing your entire perceived life. Half of that number, which would be half of your perceived life, is 2.59, which just happens to be 1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 + 1/6 + 1/7. This would mean, in theory, that half of your perceived life is over by seven. Daunting.

To be fair, however, most people don't remember the first three years of your life. Taking that into account, our new partial sum is about 3.35, half that is 1.675, which means that half of your perceived life is over at around 18.

Now what does all of this math that I barely understand mean? When people say that your younger years are the most important years of your life, they aren't kidding. 50% of your life is over by 18 years old in your head, and everything speeds by after that. Eventually, you'll get older and forget these 18 years (you already forgot your first 3), which is sort of sad. These 18 years are important, and that is why they should be written down. Looking back, it is good, exciting, and even liberating to remember these key moments in your life. Think about what has happened:

Do you remember your first kiss? The first time you fell in love? The first time your heart was broken?

Do you remember that moment when you discovered your passion?

Do you remember 12 long, strenuous, yet worthwhile years of learning that led you to your future?

Do you remember the first time you faced a fear? The first time you did something crazy?

Those 18 years are so important. Don't let this 50% fly away just so the next 50% can speed by.