My Concept of Time

 

       Time has always been insignificant for me.  Time just went by and I occupied myself on different tasks from sun up until sun down.  To me, my life just took up space and a certain segment of this era.  I paid little attention to what was going on around me.  But wait, I have heard that before and I have seen that before.  As if my life ran a circular path and time was passing me by again and again.

 

         My life took a big jolt at the time of my mother’s death.  I began to see my life like in a cycle.  It seems that the same challenges my mother faced; I have had to face.  Could it be true that history does repeat itself?  Could certain circumstances that faced a previous member of the family now face another member of the family?  My mother faced hardships in her lifetime.  I have had to face similar conflicts in my own life.

 

         Conflicts like facing the unknown as she ventured out to start her life.  She faced discord in her personal family, infidelity, poverty, sickness and death.  Every time she set out to accomplish something; she was faced with obstacles.  As if the obstacles were there to test my mother’s life.  Time brings difficulties but they can be overcome.  I have met with discouragement, doubt, fear, but I have managed to look at fear in the eyes and say, “I am not giving up.”

 

My life took another jolt when time brought into my path key people who shared important information about my early ancestors.  I learned about a Spanish Lady, Josefa Guerra, who with her family sailed over across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain to start a life in the new world.  She must have been a magnificent person to venture out to face unknown challenges in a vast wilderness, which is now Zapata County, Texas.  She probably faced personal conflicts as well as hardships from the new environment.

 

Life then was difficult because they had to build life from scratch but it was done; otherwise, we would not be here today.  This bit of information regarding our early ancestors brought encouragement to me.  It is good to know that other people have struggled and succeeded.  Will time bring us more information that will unfold the past so we can better understand the present as well as the future?

 

Josephine Martinez

Written for Geology Class

Fall 1991