Time Tales

As I prepare for my final year of high school, my final year before I reach "adulthood," I ponder how time has so stealthily carried me quickly through the past three years. As a child, I dreamed about the days when the law would allow me to drive, when I would have a curfew later than sunset, and when I would finally be tall enough to reach the microwave buttons without standing on a chair. So, now I stand at a crossroads: once a naive child longing to grow up, now I stand as a young adult pleading my mother to stop nagging me about filling out college applications. Do I want to move forward into independence or do I wish to remain in a carefree time of acting young and reckless? In Elizabeth Strout's novel, Olive Kitteridge, the author address the major conflict of time passing which affects the lives of many characters. The conflict holds a definite role in the middle-aged pharmacist, Henry Kitteridge's, life. Working with a young woman named Denise, Henry often finds himself infatuated with her "childlike" essence (9). As his marriage finds itself dull and passionless, Henry feels an intense desire to "be in... presence of this young couple [Denise and husband, Henry]" (5). Strout juxtaposes the exciting marriage of the young couple to the distant one of Olive and Henry. As Henry indirectly characterizes himself as jealous of the young couple's spark and extreme devotion to each other, he speaks with a nostalgic tone as he longs for the days of immense happiness with his wife. Through the nostalgic tone, Strout asserts that people often lose touch with their own youth, only erasing the worry-free world they one existed in. While I have never experienced marriage myself, I understand Henry's wish to return to his days of carelessness with Olive. I often reflect on my childhood days with my oldest brother, Justin. Once duty-free, we held the ability to play games for hours, while nowadays we have grown apart due to the hectic working world he now resides in. I truly miss the close relationship we once held, just like Henry misses his own with Olive. On a different note, Strout introduces the character of Kevin Coulson, a young man still in the process of growing up and finding himself. Looking from a different perspective, Kevin acknowledges that the world's youth tries too hard to grow up. Kevin thinks to himself deciding it "sad... always a new age dawning" (42). Through his declaration, Kevin seems disappointed as he backs Strout's claim that people need to slow down and enjoy today. As a teenager, I admit that I fall victim to Kevin's point. With each crave to snag the next iPhone, each desperate need catch the latest celebrity gossip; I have unfortunately let my days of youth pass me by. Always longing for the next best thing, I have allowed myself to miss out on the small things that make these years so special; however, I also acknowledge that I cannot turn back time as I also wish the characters in Strout's novel would realize. Always melancholy and nostalgic, characters like Henry, Kevin, and many others waste their lives trying to turn back the clock. I believe that at any age, young or old, people will wish for something they once held, or will hold in the future. Embrace the time given, "today is a gift, that's why they call it the present."