After the End
I've never like the phrase "life can change in an instant". I don't think it's a very accurate statement to make.
Granted, there are some situations in which it does hold true. The instant someone close to you dies, for example, inherently and irrevocably changes your life in an instant.
Life instead changes in a series of related instances. Getting a college acceptance letter only changes your life when you accept their offer of admittance; one moment cannot happen without the other.
It is never one isolated instant or choice or moment or flashpoint. Life goes by quickly, but only because we never realize the instant that all of those instances finally add up. When you accept a college offer of admission, you are never really cognitive of all the tiny, seemingly insignificant decisions and moments that make that instant possible. You never think about the choice to apply to the school, or the meeting with the counselor that persuaded you to do so. You never think about the friend that talked the school up before the counselor, and you never think about that time you studied for that physics test and did okay enough to get the grade that earned you the letter in your hand. You just never think about it.
You never think about the slow build up of ill will, or that time you didn't stay for dinner though you should have. You never think about the moment the last real conversation you ever had ended. You never think about the instant you locked eyes and you knew that this was the way it had to be. You never think about the instant you got your last phone call. You only ever think about the moment that you realized you didn't love the person in front of you anymore. So you think that your life changed in an instant. You think that it all happened in a split second, when in reality it's been forever and a day in the making.
You never realize that the instant when your best friend becomes the hole in your heart instead of the filling is really made up of eternity. You only remember that moment. And you cry because you're life just changed in an instant. And you cry because your life can be changed in an instant.
Granted, there are some situations in which it does hold true. The instant someone close to you dies, for example, inherently and irrevocably changes your life in an instant.
Life instead changes in a series of related instances. Getting a college acceptance letter only changes your life when you accept their offer of admittance; one moment cannot happen without the other.
It is never one isolated instant or choice or moment or flashpoint. Life goes by quickly, but only because we never realize the instant that all of those instances finally add up. When you accept a college offer of admission, you are never really cognitive of all the tiny, seemingly insignificant decisions and moments that make that instant possible. You never think about the choice to apply to the school, or the meeting with the counselor that persuaded you to do so. You never think about the friend that talked the school up before the counselor, and you never think about that time you studied for that physics test and did okay enough to get the grade that earned you the letter in your hand. You just never think about it.
You never think about the slow build up of ill will, or that time you didn't stay for dinner though you should have. You never think about the moment the last real conversation you ever had ended. You never think about the instant you locked eyes and you knew that this was the way it had to be. You never think about the instant you got your last phone call. You only ever think about the moment that you realized you didn't love the person in front of you anymore. So you think that your life changed in an instant. You think that it all happened in a split second, when in reality it's been forever and a day in the making.
You never realize that the instant when your best friend becomes the hole in your heart instead of the filling is really made up of eternity. You only remember that moment. And you cry because you're life just changed in an instant. And you cry because your life can be changed in an instant.