When Did Time Begin?
For each of us, time began when we started to perceive it, not at birth. As children, we were taught by our parents when it was time to eat, sleep, and wake up. We learned that weekends are free days, and that vacations come during summer or winter breaks. We also learned that once a year, we celebrate our birthday. The moment we recognized the passing of years, months, weeks, days, and hours was when we truly began to perceive time. Until we noticed it, time didn’t seem to exist for us.
The Illusion of Endless Summers
How many times, as children spending summers at our grandparents’ house, did we think those summers would last forever? Until a certain age, we don’t consider such things. Why? Because we didn’t perceive time; we believed those moments would stretch on indefinitely. If we didn’t finish something that summer, we simply assumed there would be future summers. In that phase, time didn’t exist for us. The moment we began to recognize its passing was the moment we discovered time. We gave it a form and a name: “time.”
The Impact of Perceiving Time
Once we start perceiving time, everything changes. We realize our lives are temporary and that everything around us exists for only a certain amount of “time.” This awareness often brings sadness, especially because we don’t know what happens when our time runs out. While we may not have the ability to understand how or when time itself began, we do understand how we relate to it.
So, When Did Time Begin?
Time began when we first started to perceive it.