Happy October, Sunday Letter friends!

To quote Dr. Seuss—How did it get so late so soon? Doesn’t that about sum it up?

Remember how the school year used to last forever when you were a kid? My sister and I could make our Halloween haul last until Santa put chocolate candy in our stockings, and summer felt like a geological era away.

Oh, those days are long gone. We’ve blinked and suddenly October is here, and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is one year shy of being 60 years old! (It debuted October 27, 1966.)

It’s not just our imagination. The reason time seems to pass more quickly as we age is partly a math problem. When you’re five, a single year is 20% of your life. That’s huge. When you’re sixty-three, a year is only 1.58%. That’s nothing.

It’s also about novelty. As kids, everything is brand spanking new—first bike, first crush, first time you drove a car. According to Psychology Today, time seemed slower back then because our brains were busy processing new things and paying attention. As adults, we get into routines, you know, making coffee, unloading the dishwasher, walking the dogs, and so on. New experiences not only slow down drastically, but our perception becomes less vivid. Ugh. Enough about that.

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