do you remember when you were a kid and hours lasted days and days lasted weeks and weeks lasted months, etc? the school year (9 months) felt like three years and the 3 month summer vacation seemed to last a year so that by the time labor day rolled around you were almost glad to go back. Even high school and college seemed to last forever since one was a prelude to the other and the other was a prelude to the"real world".
then, sometime around the age of 22 or 23, when you're out there in "the real world", it's like somebody hit the fast forward button and then lost the remote. days no longer dragged, weeks began to fly by and it seemed like there was rent or bills due or a holiday to buy gifts for, every other week. there were never enough hours in a day to cram work, socializing and sleep, but that was okay because you didn't really need to sleep (wake, work, club; lather, rinse, repeat).
sometime around your mid to late twenties you began to see what all those adults meant when they told you how fast you were growing up and how big you'd gotten since they last saw you; you'd look at nieces or nephews or younger cousins and wonder when they stopped being babies. teenagers were now "those obnoxious kids" and you hear "Sir" or "Ma'am" way more often than was comfortable. life started being less like a John Hughes comedy and more like Four Weddings and a Funeral as all your friends started getting hitched. the mall job/retail gig gave way to a "real job" and the wake/work/club combo is now a thing of the past 'cuz as it's not quite as easy to walk into work after an all-night dance-a-thon or hanging out with drag queens till 3am.
then thirty hit. those married friends now own homes and are starting to pop out kids with alarming frequency and even your gay friends are settling down and getting dogs/cats. your parents are looking less "vibrant" and, sometimes, just plain old. hearing them called "grandma" or "grampa" isn't quite as strange, because they're starting to look the part. there are people you work with who were born in the '80's and are unable to get any of your pop-culture references. your taste in music is now considered "old school" or "retro".
still...time keeps flying by. somehow you went to bed a kid and woke up an adult, like in Big. you've become responsible to/for somebody and you've got a home and a dog of your own. weekends go by in the blink of an eye. work days almost can't be long enough and are sandwiched between dreadful commutes. deadlines, mortgage payment, doctors appointments, weddings, christenings, and meetings are always right around the corner. you have to schedule time to see your friends, who you used to see daily, weeks in advance.
what the fuck happened?
4 comments:
The passing, and changing, of time is a wild ride. How time actually "feels" versus how it actually "is." And how age and circumstances changes it.
You just depressed the living pass out of me, CG. Thanks.
I think he meant "piss" and I agree.
*STOP*
*drinks fountain-of-youth water*
aaaaahhhhhh, that's better.
shiver - What one does when reading this post. kind of ironic, eh?
OH MY WORD! This post is SO on point, it's simply scary. That's how I feel all the time. It's like, even if you like or dislike your work, the weeks fly by, leading to weekends that end before they begin; and I ALWAYS miss everyone's birthday, etc! What the crap is up!? Does this just mean we need to slow down? Has our way of life become too full? Fast paced? (Even though I do nothing with my life... hmm?) I have no idea, but wow. Seriously, I'm 37, and this is TOTALLY how I feel each and every day.
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