According to an article by National Geographic, 2016 will be experiencing a “leap second.” That is, an extra second at the end of the year meant to keep our local concept of time in sync with solar time.
Without going any further into the science and mathematics of this phenomenon, there is a certain perplexity to the idea of an extra second – not a minute, not an hour, but a second. To those of us who aren’t familiar with quantum physics or the complexities involved in the decision to add this extra moment to our already-elongated year, it gives us pause to think about how this single second makes any degree of difference to us or the universe we live in.
But as the experts at the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service can tell us, this single second is absolutely crucial.
And perhaps that’s the secret to living a fulfilling life. In regarding this one second as crucial, we must regard every single second similarly. It’s all too common for us to beg for extra time, something I myself am all too familiar with (having participated in a scavenger hunt known as GISHWHES this summer and feeling the pressure of a ticking clock). But one thing my fellow members of Team Antehorse and I have learned from this experience is that time is precious and we should strive to live every moment of it in a manner that we are proud of.
For me, and I’m sure many others, this means taking the plunge and throwing hesitation to the wind. Time is something so you cannot redo, nor reclaim, once it’s lost, and to let it go to waste is to live a life of regrets.
I don’t know exactly where I’ll be during that one extra second of 2016, but what I do know is that I’ll value it just as much as I value the rest of the time I spend on this Earth.
Anika Sandhu
Surrey