It’s interesting really, this social construct we’ve created for one another. I mean, think about it, what is time? Sure, we can talk about all the science behind the measuring of the passage of time but ultimately isn’t that just an agreed upon set of arbitrary rules? Do we really understand time? Do we feel it?

Let me provide an example. When you lay down for the night and sleep, then awaken the next day, do you really know how long you were unconscious? Or do you look at your chrono and shock yourself at how wildly off your guesstimate was? We are simply not wired to feel time. Whether you were asleep for 20 minutes or 8 hours, it feels like the blink of an eye.

I say all that to say this, I just awoke from a short nap. What is a “short” amount of time to an immortal? Turns out in this case it was 11 years. I had to double check my ship systems to verify. I honestly thought the entire journey back from wormhole space would take a few days at best.

11 years … as I looked around the station I could hardly recognize anything. “Time” had definitely done a number on this place. Everything looked so different, except me. I looked the same, yet I knew I was different. I had changed.

I don’t really know how to describe it other than I felt out of place, like I didn’t belong. In some ways this was good. I was unrecognized, just another of those damned elite capsuleers looking down on everybody else. Obviously that wasn’t entirely true, but for once I could hide behind anonymity, which was a blessing, as I felt like a relic, I felt displaced in time.

As I walked through the promenade at Jita 4-4, wide open eyes hidden behind my aviators, someone casually wished me a “Happy Monday”. More talk on time. Why did one day have more power than any other? Why Happy Monday? Why not Wonderful Wednesday or Fantastic Friday? When did we decide that certain periods of time were more important than others?

And where were these thoughts coming from? Maybe I had changed. I checked my datapad logs to see what skills were injected while I was out. Seems my queue had ended long ago, but there was nothing in there about philosophy. This change was innately me.

Interesting.

While on my datapad, I decided the best way for me to get familiar with all the new was to simply start engaging. First up was to check what I was qualified for under the new piloting and career regulations. Seems politics had changed with time too.

Alright, there we go, I thought to myself, seeing what work I could find immediately. I might not be such a relic after all. Once I took out of my first contract, it was “time” to load up missing skills into the queue to further qualify for other opportunites.

Let me see here, what does a retired Minmatar Colonel/pirate need to progress his already legendary piloting career?

Biology? WTF?