Dear Time,

As if life wasn't hard enough, you had to come along and put an expiration date on everything. Everything always has an ending. I mean your not even tangibly real. The realest part about you seems to come from the fear you instill, or maybe it's sorrow and regret. I don't think you'll ever really comprehend the effect you have on some, driving insanity and regret.

I still have many battles to face with you, but that doesn't make my previous battles any less real or difficult. I've had the unfortunate privilege of being born in the wrong time period, so before I damage your self-esteem or whatever, I would like to ask you to rewind that little clock of yours and drop me somewhere around the 50's. If you can somehow conjure up something like that, hell we can call it even, sound good? I've learned not to ask anything from you, it seems you only work on some strict guidelines and lack any room for requests. I've asked a lot from you the last few years and heard nothing back but your brutal consistency, not even a sliver of compromise from you. I despise that about you, but some form of me understands why I never received an answer.

Time, your not just a pair of hands moving at preset intervals pointing to a never ending cycle of numbers, but much more than that. I'd like to consider that your most notable alias is a thief. You steal things from all of us. You stole a lot from me. You stole memories, you stole possessions, you stole relationships, and you stole people.The Oxford dictionary defines a thief as "A person who steals another person's property, especially by stealth and without using force or threat of violence". You steal without a warning and without every giving us a chance. However, your methods inflict a sense of heightened cruelty. You lead your victims to believe somethings may not have to end, and that some instances of time can be preserved. Then without the slightest bit of expectancy, you arrive, only to prove that notion inferior to your capabilities. Once you finish, you leave in a matter unlike common thieves. You leave all the evidence behind, directing all accusations and guilt to you, it's almost like you enjoy the attention. A couple of years ago, I would have been perfectly content if you froze and failed to ever tick again, but you just couldn't. I wasn't asking you to freeze all of reality, but just mine. Now, things have changed, not necessarily for the worse and not necessarily for the better, just different. However this time around, I know your coming.

I know your tricks and I know the damage you inflict when you arrive. The first time you get struck by a blow, the element of surprise gets the better of you making the pain exponentially more unbearable. However, when the stealthy thief comes around the second time right under your nose, you'll be ready. I won't let you do it all over again, this time around, I'll make the best of you. Who says it has to be pain that's left behind, your rule only consists of change, severe change at that, but none the less, only change. Emotion does not coincide with your strict guidelines but rather with our flexible control. I can not stop your periodical arrival, but I can make the best of it. Change represents new opportunity and growth. It is not always in our best interest to rely on the full functionality of the past. We can take the aspects of what made the past great and make it our future. We cannot relive the past or preserve the present, but with the anticipation of your arrival we can try our best to mold what comes next, essentially be the change you may so direly need, creating a new image of time. A way and a chance to create something new, even more rare than its predecessor. Perhaps the sorrow you inflict isn't matched by the hope you give.

As you arrive over and over again, we see new ages arrive. With new ages, come new idols, new ideas, new music, new relationships, and new cultures. We as a human race went through, times of destruction to times of prosperity. We had to deal with times where fear ran wild like a plague during the cold war, then we got to experience The Beatles, Elvis, innovative technology, and got to experience outer space. You pass through and bring something new ultimately having to make us say goodbye to what we have come to love or maybe hate. Although we consider that to be such a negative process, it wouldn't be special if it wasn't for you. If it wasn't for you Time, what makes the 50's the 50's? What makes The Beatles so memorable? What makes visiting the history in Italy so unique? What gives light to the songs that belonged to our grandparents? What makes memories so bright? If you didn't exist, nothing would be as we remembered, nothing would be as precisely fragile as they are. Nothing would be cherished with such carefulness. If things didn't risk being taken by your control, then nothing would be the same. Nothing would be worth the experience.

I leave you with this final note. I forgive you for what you have taken from me in the light that I am thankful for what you have not yet given me. You operate in a unique way and nobody will ever understand your true nature or reasons but I know this, as much as we fear or anticipate your arrival, it's inevitable, so the best we can do is make the best of it.

Sincerely,

A Friend.