It Went So Fast

This moment contains all moments. — C.S. Lewis

“I can’t believe I’m graduating in just a few days. It went so fast.”

This is the season when those words echo through hallways, campuses, and classrooms. High schoolers say it as they pack up their lockers. College students say it as they finish that last final.

It went so fast?… Really?

Scores of exams, practices, papers, and projects. Years of growing pains, late nights, hard conversations, and last-minute laundry. Every day full—sometimes too full—and yet now, on the edge of what’s next, it all feels like a blur.

This is the strange tension of life—long seasons feel short once they’re behind us. Moments that once seemed endless now feel like they slipped by in a breath.

We all graduate—from stages, seasons, and versions of ourselves. A toddler becomes a teen. A young couple becomes a family. A home once brimming with laughter and life is now quiet. One day you’re in it, and the next you’re looking back saying, “It went so fast.”

Fast? After all those long nights, hard days, awkward moments, and tearful prayers? Yes—because when it’s over, it all feels like a breath.

The psalmist captures it this way:

“Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath.” (Psalm 39:5, ESV)

A breath is fleeting and often unnoticed—until it’s gone. Try holding yours and you’ll quickly realize that every single one matters.

That’s how life is. Moments rush past, ordinary days pile up, and then suddenly they’re behind us—transformed into memory, nostalgia, and the ache of “the good old days.”

Andy from The Office put it well:

“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.”

Even Moses, looking back on 120 years filled with calling, adventure, wandering, and walking with God, confessed:

“The years… quickly pass, and we fly away.” (Psalm 90:10, NIV)

And then he prays:

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12, NIV)

To “number our days” isn’t to count them—it’s to live them. To stop long enough to see that today is a gift. To love the people around us. To be awake to the presence and goodness of God in our lives.

Days and breaths are too numerous to count, but both are so important. Don’t waste them or wish them away. Number them aright—not by counting them, but by making them count.

For you can be sure that the day, the event, the challenge, the goal, the dream—and even the four-year college experience—will be over and done with before you know it. And you’ll find yourself saying:

“I can’t believe I’m graduating in just a few days. It went so fast.”