Categorical (miriam-webster.com)
1 : absolute, unqualified
2 a : of, relating to, or constituting a category
b : involving, according with, or considered with respect to specific categories
You switched to the military clock three months ago. Seeing the numbers flip over made the day feel real. It felt like.a reset. You felt like a reset everyday. you needed it. You needed to find a way to realize every yesterday was part of the past and that past grew more and more distant like receding tail lights. The past is exactly that: what happened. It is not what is happening or what is to happen. It is not the guide rule by which your life is set; the wire that leads backward and forward upon which your hook dangles unsafely.
The past is absolute and unflinching. Your future is unset and available. It can change and you can change with it. You only need to decide to do that and you and you only can decide what that looks like.
So, what does it look like? What is the shape of it? Is it the python curve of eternity looping back upon itself desperately until what was and what is intersect at the point where what will be is created? Perhaps, instead, it is also categorical. Perhaps it is available in a way you’ve never allowed yourself to be. Perhaps tomorrow is fresh, new, and healthy. Perhaps tomorrow you become.
The clock flips to 00:00. You begin.