Whether flying high or down in the gutter, one thing is for sure: Life is all about timing. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only whose life has come down to a series of critical moments: catching the bus makes or breaks the rest of your day, leaving a party seconds earlier would let you avoid hearing heart breaking, soul crushing news, etc, etc. And while watching the bus drive around the corner without you is one infuriating example of how time runs the show, it’s really the big things that count. Someone once told me that when two people drift apart for no real reason they just met too soon. There’s nothing quite as depressing as the one that got away, at least to me. Torturously young poignant love aside, what about those all those other life defining moments which would never have occurred if this, that or the other didn’t go wrong?

In my short 21 years of existence I can count a handful of truly life altering moments which have made me the slightly neurotic person I am today. And as fruitless as it is, I can’t stop myself from spending hours lying awake playing the perversely cruel What If game. As in, ‘What if I hadn’t said that… What if I never came home that day…What if we had waited..? Some people could be perfect together but never have the chance to meet; others may be toxic for one another but good timing disguised all the problems. How do you ever know when the timing is good for something? When is it time to just let go, or conversely, to jump in and say fuck it, why not? When is it time to commit to the career and when is it time to jump in a car with four friends and recreate On the Road? One look at the climbing divorce rate and I would say a lot of people know nothing about timing, or choose to ignore the perfectly obvious signs. It makes you think, you can’t always get what you want. But you certainly seem to get what you need.