I've been thinking about my life and I wanted to have some perspective about time.
I've drawn every week of my life as little squares . I started at my birth. 52 square every year. 95 years in the future.
Then I started marking events on it: my pets, my siblings, my partner. Where was I? What was I studying or working at? When did I first connected to the internet?
Then I moved to other people: how old were they when they did some impressive thing? How old were they when they died? How old were my parents when they had me?
All events are relative to my birth, as if everyone else's life aligns with mine. It's complicated to explain, but intuitive.
What started as an exercise in life/time visualization ended up as therapy. I felt a bit like a kid being allowed some play time. As if while building this I was authorized to visit the past.
It was more insightful than I thought it would be. I didn't learn any new information but it still feels like I learned something.
It also made me think about things I didn't add here. When I first met my friends, my previous partners. The times I had to say goodbye to people that I cared a lot about. The homes I lived, the places I visited. When did I learn about pointers, or calculus. The times my body failed me. The times I failed.
It felt strange to include "famous dead people". I'm not particularly pop-idol driven. In the end, I chose folks who remind me of different ways of being alive. Folks that give me a sense of perspective.
Today is October 1st, 2021. I'm writing this a few weeks after finishing the whole thing. Since then, I still catch myself thinking back on those little squares.
This will probably won't be interesting to anyone else but the few people that know me. And it would probably have served its purpose without me publishing it. But maybe this will inspire other people to do something similar. If it does, I'd love to see your own take on it.