We never believed our elders or the advice received and it has come to life. And as many know, the reality of adulthood can be scary.
Time Goes Quickly
In grade school, we'd moan at the thought that it was "only October." The holidays were two months away, my birthday four months away in mid-February and spring break about six months out.
Wait- Christmas is less than 8 weeks out?! And it's almost 2016? As we grow older, we start to realize how fast time actually goes. With 8-10 work shifts, half your day is gone by the time you get home.
If you have kids, adding the after school programs into the mix, like taking my nephew to flag football practice, leaves a couple hours left in the day before your pillow starts calling.
I try to live in the moment because I have a tendency not to enjoy what I currently have but at the rapid pace time travels, it's important to know what's ahead.
Your Childhood Starts To Become History
It was my senior year in undergrad and I was missing a social and humanities elective. Being an engineering student, I scrambled to find a class I wouldn't fall asleep in. I ended up choosing "American History: Post Civil War."
The professor focused on a lot of the different movements to show how culture changes and she dug up information that we never told in our grade school learnings. It ended up being one of my favorite courses and I actually saved the book. The semester was coming to an end so she started to wrap up the material. And then it hit me how old I really was.
"Today, we'll cover Oklahoma Bombing, and Columbine. We'll wrap up with September 11 on Thursday."
How can it be that the three most traumatic events in my childhood were being discussed in textbooks? I sounded like my grandmother when the professor asked me my take and I answered by re-living the moment: "our school was shutdown for a day after Columbine and a week later, they implemented lock-down drills on the opposite schedule of fire drills."
The students all turned to me in awe to have lived this reality. Those who were alive, were too young to remember and the rest were born into a society with lock-down drills and school shootings.
It was an eye opening moment for me to know that my child hood memories were not only memories, but becoming American history.
Consequence Are Real
When I was a child, I used to get so paranoid if I missed an assignment. I laugh at my younger self. The scariest part about being an adult are the consequences.
If I missed sending the product flow to my peer, it can impact the business we're trying to bid for. When I forget to pay my phone, they cut it.
There are still things that don't have major impacts but the majority of the issues we deal with do.
Relationships aren't about having fun and getting dinner with someone. It is about seeing the potential life long partnership you can have with this person.
The hardest part is our words have more meaning and can create more harm. Even yesterday, I was reminded about how breaking my commitments can really let down my friends.
As I look around and see my friends buying homes, getting married and having children, the scary part isn't how we reached this point in our lives.
The scary part is how what we say and do can pass us so quickly, it is becoming history. How about that for a spooky thought? I think so.
Happy Halloween.
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