You know how people say, “Time flies when you’re having fun”?
Well, apparently time also flies when life is turning you every way but loose. 😂
I moved to Austin in 2019. Somehow, it is now 2026, and I genuinely don’t understand how that happened. Seven years sounds like a long time when you say it out loud, but in my mind, I still feel like I just got here.
I’m still mentally unpacking boxes from 2019, and the calendar has apparently moved on without consulting me.
When I first came to Austin, I had no idea what the next several years would look like. I knew life would change, of course, but I don’t think I understood just how much could happen while time quietly kept moving in the background.
I worked at the same job for four years. Four whole years. That’s long enough for a job to become part of your routine, your identity, and unfortunately, your stress level. 😂 When you’re living it day by day, it doesn’t always feel like a major chapter. You’re just waking up, going to work, coming home, and doing it all over again. Then one day, you look back and realize that four years of your life passed inside that routine.
And let’s talk about moving.
Since coming to Austin, I have moved almost every other year. At this point, I should be able to pack an entire house with my eyes closed. Just when one place starts feeling familiar, here comes another box, another address, and another attempt to remember where I packed the scissors.
Nothing makes you question your life choices quite like carrying boxes filled with things you clearly didn’t need badly enough to unpack after the last move.
There was also a time when I had a dog. Now, I don’t have a dog. That may sound like one small detail, but it represents an entire period of my life that came and went. There are memories connected to a version of my everyday life that doesn’t exist anymore.
That is the strange thing about time. It doesn’t always announce when something is ending.
You don’t necessarily know that you’re living through the final days of a particular routine, home, friendship, job, or version of yourself. Life simply keeps going, and later, you realize something that once felt permanent quietly became a memory.
When I look back at the person who came to Austin in 2019, I know I’m not the same woman anymore. Life has taken me through changes I expected, changes I definitely didn’t request, and a few situations that could have at least sent a warning email first.
Some years were exciting. Some were difficult. Some felt like they lasted forever while I was living through them, but now they’re all stacked together in my memory like they happened five minutes ago.
That’s why I don’t completely agree with the saying that time only flies when you’re having fun. Time flies when you’re working. It flies when you’re worried. It flies while you’re trying to get settled. It flies while you’re waiting for life to finally make sense.
It even flies during the seasons that feel slow.
Maybe that’s the part that surprises me most. There were moments when I felt stuck, like nothing was changing and I wasn’t getting anywhere. But looking back now, everything was changing. I was changing.
I was living an entire chapter of my life without realizing it was a chapter.
There are days when I wonder what I have to show for all that time. Then I remind myself that not every year can be measured by a major accomplishment. Sometimes what you have to show for a season is simply that you made it through. You learned something. You let something go. You started over. You became a little more confident, a little more honest about what you want, and a lot less willing to accept what no longer works for you.
That counts too.
Austin has been the background for so many different versions of me. The woman who arrived here in 2019 could not have predicted everything that would happen between then and now. Honestly, the woman writing this in 2026 is still trying to process some of it.
Seven years have passed. I’ve worked, moved, loved, lost, grown, changed directions, and started over more than once.
And somehow, after all of that, part of me still feels like I just got here.
So yes, time flies when you’re having fun—but it also flies when you’re simply trying to figure life out. One minute, you’re beginning a new chapter. The next minute, you’re looking back and saying:
“Damn. It’s been that long?”
—Karinna Sorelle ♥