Time Is Out of Joint

As we wrap up the last issue of 2023, I can’t believe another year has come and gone so quickly. As I get older, the years just seem to fly by — the sensation is like that cheesy special effect in old-time movies, when the camera zooms in on a calendar and then the pages suddenly fly off the wall to signify that it’s months or years later.

They say as you get older time seems to pass more quickly because the given amount of time — a year, a day — is a smaller percentage of the total time you’ve been alive. But it seems something else is at work here, too — at least for me. The pandemic seemed to throw off my sense of time; sometimes it seems like the last few years have been a blur.

I don’t think I’m the only person to have this sensation. Anecdotally, friends and acquaintances have shared feeling the same sense of everything being a bit off kilter — in both their personal and professional lives. Some work and production schedules, thrown off by the pandemic, seem like they still haven’t gotten back to the pre-pandemic normal.

An interesting phrase has cropped up to describe the feeling: the “pandemic skip.” I’ve read a few articles about it, and I’ve seen it defined as the sensation that our minds are out of sync with our bodies, as if the public emergency and a lot of time spent in home confinement altered our perception of time. Some people report feeling like they missed three years of their lives, with some even stating the wrong age when asked how old they were — often off by two or three years.

I sense some of the effects of the “pandemic skip” in most of my friends and family, and realize the effects of the pandemic must have been especially tough on school-age kids. I know it was tough on this 60-year-old (or is it 62)?

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s a perfect time to reflect on what we lost during the pandemic years, what is truly important to us, and how much we have to be thankful for. As we prepare for another new year ahead, here’s hoping that we enjoy a year of success, joy and camaraderie — and that it doesn’t fly by too fast.