[T-996] 20 years ago is the second best time to plant a tree

Dear Rine,

The other day at the SM.Wiki discord, @smackolicism reminded us of the old saying:

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

I’d like to argue the opposite.

Twenty years ago, time crawled.

I couldn’t bear to watch a sapling grow at its laggard pace.

I’d be bored out of my wits, bite my nails and grind my teeth impatiently.

The tree would still grow as slow as trees do.

Sure, I’d have a tall and lush and blooming tree today. But a fair amount of my nerve endings would have dried up and whittled. That would have been the price.

But now that I am in my thirties, the hour and minute hands on my bedroom clock rotate faster than a jet turbine blade.

So if I planted the tree today, I’d be perfectly content watching it grow slowly.

I’d get the same tall tree, eventually, but with most of my nerves intact.

A much better deal!

A 1000 days is 143 weeks is 10 quarters is 3 years (more or less).

It no longer seems such a daunting, discouraging stretch of time as it used to.

My point is: rather than regretting all the time I wasted, I prefer to appreciate the upside of the current moment.

There ought to be such a benefit in any moment.

That’s my observation for today

Now on to my report.

What I did yesterday

• Covered a 100 vocab words from the N5 deck
• Watched an episode of an anime without subtitles
• Passively listened to some Japanese youtube videos throughout the day

What will I do today

• Already did my 100 words but still have to clear up final drill
• I found an old iPod to convert into an always-on immersion device
• If I find the time, I’d like to go over the Refold guide again to get some guidance

Any obstacles?

• I have trouble recalling the pronunciation of words. Meanings I remember, but pronunciations elude me. I’m considering the following countermeasures:
  • Move back the Jap branch into a separate collection so that SM18 can learn the adequate interval
  • Create a mnemonic system out of Japanese phonemes (a tip I heard from @Sven)