Between Here and There Is Time

I still remember the day they laughed.

I was fourteen, carrying a manuscript in hands that were too young for the weight of ambition. To me, it was not just papers bound together. It was possibility. It was a boy trying to touch tomorrow before tomorrow arrived. But to some people around me, it was a joke.

“Book ke?”

“Face your studies.”

“Who do you think you are?”

Those words were meant to reduce me to size. You know how people can look at a seed and mock it for not being a tree yet.

At that age, I did not have all the answers. I did not know the roads ahead. I did not know how many times life would test resolve, patience, ego, and hunger. But if I could sit with that younger version of myself today, I would tell him something simple that took years to fully understand:

Life is a phase. The distance between here and there is time.

Many people think success is about magic moments. It is not. It is often about ordinary days used wisely. It is about mornings nobody claps for. It is about nights nobody sees. It is about choosing progress when fantasy feels sweeter.

Because truth be told, time does not stop for anybody. It moves whether you are ready or not. It moves whether you are building or merely wishing. It moves whether you are learning or complaining. The same twenty-four hours that can carry one person into growth can also carry another into regret.

That is why I would tell my younger self: do not waste too much energy admiring distant mountains. Start walking.

Every page written was a step.

Every rejection was a step.

Every insult survived was a step.

Every lesson learned was a step.

Every small win nobody celebrated was a step.

People often see the harvest and ignore the seasons of planting. They see confidence and ignore the years of doubt. They see results and ignore the private discipline that produced them.

From the boy who was talked down for attempting to publish one book at fourteen, life kept moving. Seasons changed. Skill matured. Perspective deepened. Today, that same journey has produced nine self-published books.

Nine.

Not because the road was smooth. Not because support was constant. Not because fear disappeared. But because each day became another brick laid on the path forward.

That is the labyrinth of growth many people misunderstand. Growth is rarely linear. Sometimes you move forward and feel lost. Sometimes you work hard and nothing seems to show. Sometimes you question whether effort is reaching anywhere at all. But many times, what feels like delay is development happening underground.

The bamboo does not shout while rooting.

So to my younger self, I would say this:

Be patient with timing.

Be faithful with today.

Do not let mockery become prophecy.

Do not let delay become defeat.

Do not let comparison steal concentration.

And please, do not romanticize tomorrow so much that you abandon the assignment of now.

The heights that look unscalable from a distance often become reachable one step at a time. What seems impossible from the valley can become ordinary once you keep climbing.

Life is a phase.

Pain is a phase.

Confusion is a phase.

Becoming is a phase too.

Between where you stand now and where you dream to be is time. Use it well. Because one day, you will look back and realize that the mountain was never conquered in one leap.

It was conquered in days.