The Value Of The Ticking Seconds

Time. It is life’s most valuble gift. Time is also priceless. You can spend it, but you can’t keep it. And once those seconds are lost, you can never get them back. We speak to seven individuals who went through life changing experiences to realise the value of the ticking seconds

- Jerrica Leong

What is time? Most of us started learning measurements of second, minute, hour, day and month at the age of four when we entered pre-school. We learn that the day changes at the stroke of midnight, and we learn that a year has passed with every birthday that we celebrate. Based on behavioural statistics, an average millennial will spend at least nine years of their average livelihood of 78 years on TV and social media. But is that all there is to it? We have learnt that time takes on different incarnations—it can be a healer, a friend or your worst enemy. Often, it takes a catastrophic moment to make us truly appreciate that time is something that once wasted, cannot be revisited.

To understand the value of one year, we spoke to a beautiful young lady who was told she has less than a year to live. Mandy Lee was diagnosed with Primary Mediastinal B-Cell Lymphoma at the tender age of 23. For her, every moment matters, and she is determined to live every day to the fullest. To realise the value of one month, we spoke to a mother who had her child a month too early. Premature babies, especially those born very early, often have medical complications that grazes the line between life or death. Adliza Mohd Hizan gave birth to her premature daughter after just a little more than six months of carrying her in her womb. Her daughter was born missing out on vital bodily developments, and struggled for her life in the NICU during her first month into the world. There were a series of heart-stopping spells where she stopped breathing. If only her pregnancy had lasted just another month longer, perhaps her child would not have had to go through so much pain.