Many years ago, over a particular winter break in my college years as I drove through a Christmas tree market in the blur of snow, I had a realization:
We only get a finite number of Christmases.
And even worse, oftentimes we will never know which Christmas is our last until it’s too late. Yeah, yeah, I’m sure some of you are thinking something like, “Jesus Christ, Danny, you have a PhD and that’s the kind of thing you consider a revelation?” But it’s a thought that has lingered with me since.
That’s not to say I dwelled on that shit when I was in my 20s. I was as stupid in my 20s as anyone else, unappreciative of time and uncaring about its passing. Back then, most time was just something I hoped would pass faster so I could get to the fun parts.
To some extent, I do still feel that way as I approach my mid-30s. I like to say that nothing makes time go faster than having a trip to look forward to, and that’s why I basically have my entire 2026 trip schedule except the big December trip booked out in March. But now I’m not entirely sure I want time to go so fast.
Perhaps it’s a sign of me getting older, but I’m coming to more fully appreciate that as much as I like vacation time finally arriving, time passing by to get to them means I’m just running out of time in other regards. Time to write. Time with family. Time to pursue my entrepreneurial ambitions.
Time that I’ll only have less of as I, God willing, get older and slower. Get married. Get busier.
I recently had a conversation with my mom where I expressed the thought, “Life is all that happens in between the things you look forward to, isn’t it?” And she’s like, “Yep.” From that perspective, things going faster in between trips is just life going faster.
Not a fan.
These days, I have no particular desire for time, and thus life, to go faster. I look forward to my travels, but I wish their approach didn’t somehow mean that I was running out of time in other regards.
Maybe it’s a good kind of pressure - that’s how I have to look at it, right? Pressure for me to get done as much as I can in the space between those moments. To write as much as I can, to create as much as I can, to do as much as I can while I can.
Because the clock’s gonna keep ticking no matter what.
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