I run a web app called Preceden [1], which specializes in creating multilayered timelines. You could easily use it to plot the significant events in your life and anyone else's to see how they overlap. Lots of teachers use it to solve the same problem you have had; visualizing time can be very difficult without the right tools.
Edit: Just for fun, here's a timeline of the Civil War, Mr Seymour's life, the I've Got a Secret Episode, and today's date using Preceden:
http://preceden.com/timelines/15108-i-ve-got-a-secret---linc...
Edit: Added a 25 year zoom level to the timelines, which makes this timeline (and I'm sure others) fit better.
I'm 43, about halfway thru my lifespan of perhaps 86. I'll have lived about 1% of recorded history.
Human history doesn't seem very long now.