(Hi everyone! Lurker since the Sylvia clock read 181 days.)
I found myself in a deparment store school supply isle today, hunting pencils and pens.
School must be starting soon, I thought as I picked my way through groups of youngsters. Kids of all ages were excitedly flipping through binders and books, comparing prices and colors, begging mom to spring for the choiciest of swag. So many kids there at a late hour! School must be starting tomorrow, and here were all the crammers.
Some of the mothers seemed as excited as the kids. I imagined they were thinking back to when they were starting school. They'd check and double check that their children had everything on their list. Then they'd check again.
I spent a lot of time searching for my supplies. The kids and their parents were too much fun to observe to be in a hurry.
I tried to imagine the time when I was starting school. I remember rulers and glue and graph paper. New shoes. A much needed haircut. Trying to figure out how to smuggle a favorite pocket knife in to class. (Much later, trying to smuggle a more useful tool, a graphing calculator.)
It was at this point I wondered what i'd trade to be their age again. What would I give to be 9? 13? 18? What would I do differently at their age, knowing then what I do now?
Then it dawned on me: what would I do if I were 29?
I really hit the slippery slope there. I was no longer whimsically daydreaming about being young again. I was melancholy, daydreaming about being old, so old, looking back at myself in that school supply isle, wonder what i'd do if only I could be 29 again!
The feeling I experienced at that moment could almost be described as panic. I was once 9! 13! 18!! I just didn't know it! Thankfully, a nearby package of particularly colorful pencils calmed me (they sure didn't have glitter in the eraser like that when I was going to school...) I regained clarity of thought and knew what I had to do: Just post on the JREF forum and see what all those intelligent, level headed, sagacious posters would do if they were wee lads (or ladies) again.
If you could roll back the clock to the age of 29 and know then what you know now, what would you do with your life? What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What would you do at all costs, no matter what?
You don't have to be a geezer to answer the questions -- it just helps! I'd say anyone over the age of 29 can pitch in (and the rest of you can just taunt us old folks)
This is so interesting to me. I -am- 29. In a -philosophical- way (sorry, obligatory on-topic philosophy word reference in case this thread better belongs in the mid-life-crisis / free therapy forum) my wish has just been granted. Of course the rub is I don't have the years of experience to know what it is I need to do. I don't know what is important, or what i'll find important, when the time comes that I look back and wish I were 29 again. That's where you come in.
Now, I shall drink more beer, and await the insight. Don't forget, i'm not going to be 29 forever!
I found myself in a deparment store school supply isle today, hunting pencils and pens.
School must be starting soon, I thought as I picked my way through groups of youngsters. Kids of all ages were excitedly flipping through binders and books, comparing prices and colors, begging mom to spring for the choiciest of swag. So many kids there at a late hour! School must be starting tomorrow, and here were all the crammers.
Some of the mothers seemed as excited as the kids. I imagined they were thinking back to when they were starting school. They'd check and double check that their children had everything on their list. Then they'd check again.
I spent a lot of time searching for my supplies. The kids and their parents were too much fun to observe to be in a hurry.
I tried to imagine the time when I was starting school. I remember rulers and glue and graph paper. New shoes. A much needed haircut. Trying to figure out how to smuggle a favorite pocket knife in to class. (Much later, trying to smuggle a more useful tool, a graphing calculator.)
It was at this point I wondered what i'd trade to be their age again. What would I give to be 9? 13? 18? What would I do differently at their age, knowing then what I do now?
Then it dawned on me: what would I do if I were 29?
I really hit the slippery slope there. I was no longer whimsically daydreaming about being young again. I was melancholy, daydreaming about being old, so old, looking back at myself in that school supply isle, wonder what i'd do if only I could be 29 again!
The feeling I experienced at that moment could almost be described as panic. I was once 9! 13! 18!! I just didn't know it! Thankfully, a nearby package of particularly colorful pencils calmed me (they sure didn't have glitter in the eraser like that when I was going to school...) I regained clarity of thought and knew what I had to do: Just post on the JREF forum and see what all those intelligent, level headed, sagacious posters would do if they were wee lads (or ladies) again.
If you could roll back the clock to the age of 29 and know then what you know now, what would you do with your life? What would you do the same? What would you do differently? What would you do at all costs, no matter what?
You don't have to be a geezer to answer the questions -- it just helps! I'd say anyone over the age of 29 can pitch in (and the rest of you can just taunt us old folks)
This is so interesting to me. I -am- 29. In a -philosophical- way (sorry, obligatory on-topic philosophy word reference in case this thread better belongs in the mid-life-crisis / free therapy forum) my wish has just been granted. Of course the rub is I don't have the years of experience to know what it is I need to do. I don't know what is important, or what i'll find important, when the time comes that I look back and wish I were 29 again. That's where you come in.
Now, I shall drink more beer, and await the insight. Don't forget, i'm not going to be 29 forever!
