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There is a familiar saying, “Time flies.” We usually add, “when you're having fun.”

It is interesting that we rarely say the opposite. Nobody seems to say, “Time flies when life is difficult.”

Perhaps because when we are uncomfortable, we become acutely aware of every passing minute. We watch the clock. We count the days. We wish the situation would end yet, perhaps those are the moments when time is doing some of its most important work.

When life is comfortable, we rarely question ourselves. We are enjoying the experience rather than analysing it, but discomfort demands our attention. It forces us to adapt, reconsider, endure, and sometimes discover capabilities we did not know we possessed.

Perhaps that is why difficult periods can feel so long while we are experiencing them yet become remarkably short when we look back. We remember what they taught us, rather than how slowly they seemed to pass.

Maybe time does not actually fly when we are having fun. Perhaps we simply notice it less and maybe that is the irony.

We celebrate the moments that disappear quickly because they were enjoyable, while wishing away the moments that may ultimately contribute more to who we become. Perhaps growth does not happen when time flies. Perhaps growth happens when we are standing still, watching every second pass, wondering when it will finally be over and then, years later, realising that those were the moments that changed us.