The importance of time

This blog post was written by Joshua Grobart, a member of the T5 cohort. Josh is from Chicago, IL, and spends time at Tivnu interning at Free Geek, Tivnu Construction, and Community Warehouse. You can also find him baking sweet treats in the bayit or watching Parks and Recreation.

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, “time” is defined as “the measured or measurable period during which an access, process, or condition exists or continues.” While I believe this definition is accurate I believe this definition has a critical flaw. The definition states,  time is “measured” or is “measurable.” While it’s possible for an individual to measure the numerical value of time, one cannot measure the importance of time in relation to one’s individual growth. As I, Josh Grobart, am the author of this post, it seems fitting for me to talk about time in relation to my growth as an individual during my time on Tivnu. As you continue to read, don’t think about me as the focal point because I am not, I’m just a narrator telling a story about someone named “The Old Josh Grobart” (or OG), someone I met before Tivnu started.  

The date is August 28, 2018, the first day of Tivnu, and OG is finally getting his first taste of freedom… away from the parents (just kidding Mom and Dad, love you), yet, with one particular piece of advice circulating in his head that his family has given him: “Be yourself.” OG  heard this at least 100 times a day for the past week and was so sick of hearing it that he simply tried to stop listening to it after the 374th time. Midway through the four hour and forty-five minute flight from Chicago to Portland in his preferred seat (which of course is the window), OG is trying to listen to his favorite song, “Not Afraid.” The funny part is,he never actually hears a single lyric of his favorite song, only the voices of his family saying what have now become his two least favorite words: “Be yourself”.

As OG thinks about those two words, he realizes he has tried to cover up the fact he didn’t really know how to be himself. In the past, he had always tried to take pieces of his brothers’ personalities and mesh them into one, but OG realizes that isn’t being himself, that was just incorporating certain traits of others into how he acted. OG’s oldest brother is very passionate while his middle brother is so very funny and OG has tried to be more passionate and funny, too. With this new awareness, OG knows that he has some digging to do in order to understand how to “be himself.”

As time passes and OG gets into the full swing of Tivnu with all of his internships, educational activities, and his favorite part of the program, just hanging out with his friends, he starts to gather possible answers to his question,“How do I be myself when I don’t know how to be myself?” His answer? Why try to be yourself when you already are yourself? In other words, who else can he be? He can’t be anyone else except himself.

OG thinks about some things very differently than his parents and this is one of those things. You see, the way OG looks at this whole idea is, just because he has tried to act like others doesn’t mean he is trying to be like others. It only means he admires a certain qualities of others, including those his brothers posses such as being funny and passionate.   Being able to understand what it means to be himself was possible because of this amazing idea of time. Growing physically takes numerical time, time that can be measured, – just ask your doctor to see your growth chart if you don’t believe me. While growing as a person takes time time too, the importance of that time cannot be measured .

Me and OG have really become great friends… speak of the devil he just texted me that I should check out his blog post about the importance of time in relation to personal growth! Whoa, that’s weird– I just wrote about that.