Exploring a Timeless Academic Life

This article is constructed as a prolonged pause, triggered by the restless and sleepless anxiety caused by a frantic academic life. The author reflects on how her accelerated existence as a tenured academic is driven by a need to achieve, and questions whether this path will lead to fulfillment. This reflection embodies two views of time. “Academic-time” is presented as an instrumental, measured, performance-oriented approach that cultivates a sense of anxiety over limited time. The alternative, Slow time, is regarded as a richer, boundless, and limitless view of time that enables individuals to experience greater agency and purpose