Running Out of Time

The final response to the Extraordinarily Ordinary challenge is from The Many Colours of Happiness.  It's very beautiful and when I read it out aloud to my mum both of us were rapt in smiles. 

If I were to describe her, I would say this: Time means everything to her. Were I to describe her in any other way, to include other aspects of her person that I may have noticed, such as the way she looks, the way that she dresses, or her likes and dislikes; would be to cheapen the description. To change her through words into someone that she is not.

Time is her core; everything else is filler, something for the world to see. A show, a charade. No, the only thing that really exists in her world is time.

I often wonder if her obsession with time or the clock came first. I wonder if she began lugging it around for a dare, then continued taking it around after the dare was over, half for comfort and half as a joke. Until the years had passed and it became as necessary to her as breathing.
But her love for time probably came first. She began with watches, then alarm clocks, until she found the perfect companion. Her clock is large, one that you would hang on your wall in the living room. She has a little space for it in the cardboard box she carries everywhere. A nice little nest made up of blankets and old sweaters. She lives and breathes according to that clock.
She is always early, sitting silently and waiting alone for the rest of the world to catch up. Once she walked out halfway through a meeting she was running because the clock hands had reached four, and that was when it was scheduled to finish.
People found it odd. I did at the time. But now I think it noble. We are always changing, evolving, liking things that we once hated and hating things that we once loved. Not her. She is inflexible. Life to her is set in stone. And by god she believes in that clock with a rock-solid passion that so few of us ever find.

Yes, if I were to describe her, I would say this: Time means everything to her.

(N.B. The Many Colours of Happiness reserves all rights to this work of fiction.)

It's very whimsical and thought-provoking isn't it?  Poignant is probably a good word for it.  Thankyou for sharing it! 

Well, that's the end of the Extraordinarily Ordinary challenge, but for now, you can still go and read the responses.  The list is down the right-hand side. 

Eh bien, on a completely different note altogether, today was very interesting.  It was the school captain interviews.  I think I either did amazingly or blew it big time.  It's actually very difficult to tell.  (One of my fellow-candidates and good friend became catatonic afterwards.)  On the good...ish side, everyone's singing my school captain speech song (the one I did on ukelele).  Someone told me that they have it on their USB.  That they showed their family.  That everyone in their family knows it off by heart.  Wow.  It's half horrifying and half awesome.  I honestly just can't wait for it to be over! 

On a completely different completely different note altogether, The Picture of Dorian Gray came today and I rushed down and swooped it up.  I haven't started yet because I've been shovelling modern history notes down my gullet in preparation for my essay-writing exam tomorrow, but maybe tonight before I go to bed.  I'm so excited!