Life is short, they say.

They’re right.

It seems like just yesterday I had graduated from college, but that was 15 years ago.

Where does the time go?

In the blink of an eye, we grew up, grew older, grew tired of some people and welcomed new ones into our lives.

Sometimes I feel like I grew smarter, more independent, more aware and more focused. Other times I feel like I’m none of these things.

Whenever I talk about music, events or other things from the 90s, it seems like that was maybe five to ten years ago. Nope. Try again. That 1995 was 18 years ago blows my mind. It seems like it can’t be possible, but it is.

Things change in the blink of an eye — things that make us wish we could rewind the clock or that we’d made more memories. A loved one is here one moment and gone the next. A job is in play on Monday but gone by Friday. Trust can be broken in an instant. Cognitive decline happens, even though the better days we remember still feel close enough to reach out and touch.

Yes, life is short and the literal act of blinking is something we can’t avoid. We simply do it, and we do it without thinking. But when it comes to the things in life that matter the most, let us not blink as often as our eyes, and instead pay proper attention to them.

Tonight, for those times in my life that taught me the importance of blinking less, I am thankful.