Jimmy is a young man with great looks. The bangs from his long dark brown hair hung over his forehead. His brown eyes glint in the sunlight as he is standing at the bus stop. His junior year of high school is almost up but he doesn't feel the excitement. The stress from the end of the school year is weighing on him.


Throughout the school day Jimmy realized he didn't feel right. He felt off. Not a sickness though. He didn't feel like he had to throw up or that he was in physical pain. He had realized that he was in a slump. Jimmy’s usual enthusiasm and happiness was replaced today with the depression he has been fighting for years.


Although he had good looks and was a great person, he never seemed to fit in anywhere. Ever since he was young he had always been bullied. His living situation wasn't the best either and didn't help his depression. Jimmy felt trapped. He had been fighting with this since he was in the 6th grade. Although recently he had overcome the majority of it all, depression still lingered above waiting to engulf him in it's dark embrace once again if he let it.


Jimmy felt it once again today. He knew he had to do something or he would be in depression’s grip once again. He decided to hang out with one of his best friends after school to cheer himself up. Jimmy had gotten paid a few days before so they went shopping. He had bought a new watch he had had his eye on.


A few days later Jimmy felt happiness again. Not because of his new purchase, he didn't quite care for being happy over material things. No, Jimmy had fallen for a girl. She was a beautiful young lady with brown curly hair. Her smile always lit up Jimmy’s day and he would do anything to see it. Her name was Christine. They had connected over the past few days and Jimmy felt a happiness he hadn't felt in awhile, almost a feeling of being wanted.


Every night when Jimmy went to bed after talking to Christine, he heard a loud ticking in the silence of his room. He thought nothing of this the first time he heard it. The next day was a normal one for Jimmy. He went through the school day on autopilot, never quite standing out, but always talking to Christine. That night when Jimmy laid down to go to bed, among the silence he heard the ticking again. Only this time it seemed louder. He noticed it more and more every night.


About a week later Jimmy felt off again. He didn't feel the same he did a few weeks ago though. He felt almost a sense of depressed happiness. Not quite happy but not quite depressed. Jimmy felt as though he had changed since the last few weeks. Almost as though he wanted to be noticed. That same night as Jimmy lay in bed, he listened to the ticking. He didn't try to go to bed, he wanted to stay up and listen to it. Jimmy felt in a trance. He never put much thought into where the ticking was coming from. He finally realized it came from his new watch.


Jimmy never payed much attention to it since it was a material object. He got out of bed and picked it up. Turning on the bedroom lamp, he inspected the watch more carefully. Jimmy felt almost connected to it. The next day Christine and Jimmy had an off day and she seemed to ignore him and seemed as though she was uninterested in him anymore. That night Jimmy laid in bed awake because of being hurt by Christine. The ticking from the watch felt as though it was directly in his ear. Normally almost annoying to him, Jimmy liked it tonight. It was as though it was speaking to him. Jimmy translated what the ticking was.


To Jimmy the watch was saying “With every tick I make, another second of your life flies by. How are you making use of your short time? How are you making a difference? What are you gonna do to change the things you don't like in your life? What are you doing?”


The next day Jimmy talked to more people. He said “Hello” to people he never did before. He opened up more in class. He wanted people to notice him. Jimmy didn't want to just be another faceless person in the halls. Jimmy’s new found confidence and philosophy came from the watch. Jimmy would've never thought that a material object could change him. Christine and Jimmy were still on a weird path but Jimmy was okay with that. It was a part of life. It was intertwined with the ticking. Life is intertwined with the ticking. Jimmy realized, we're all intertwined with the ticking of time.