When I was in grade seven & eight I was first introduced to the social bouillabaisse known as the high school dance. Starting immediately after the school day ended, my friends and I would enter the darkened, magically converted school cafeteria and awkwardly attempt unknown dance gyrations to popular music from 3:30 pm to the wee smalls of 6:00 pm. Standing rigidly against the wall trying to act cool as possible we realized this was only temporary, because once we entered grade nine, all bets were off and we would be allowed to take part in the coveted senior dance which started at 7pm and ended at 11:00 pm! That was where the real action was and we all counted down the days that we would be able to become part of that significantly more adult event.
Blowing out the fifteen candles on my birthday cake, opening up the numerous presents that had now finally evolved from Lego blocks and transforming robots to garishly coloured shirts and leather ties with piano keys on them, I could only think of one thing. In 365 days I'll be able to get my drivers license and immediately began to craft adventurous plans of what I would do when that momentous of days would arrive.
Shivering coldly in the dark with a group of my friends outside of the senior dance, passing around a bottle, which contained a small portion of every known alcoholic substance in my best friend's father's liquor cabinet. Wincing and forcing down this devilish concoction I knew this was only temporary, because soon the day would come where I would be able to purchase these ingredients myself….legally.
And now here I am. I have surpassed these milestones and have graduated into the world of adulthood. I have job, a car, and my own place. Hooray! I can do anything I want. The world is my oyster. So now what do I do? Not to sound bleak, but what's the next step in my life I should be anxiously counting down the days to? Marriage? Children? Early retirement? For some reason, I'm not exactly jazzed up about these coming stages of my life. I begin to reflect back on myself when I was a teenager and how I would practically accelerate the passage of time in my hopes of being older and the privileges that lay within that status. Why would I do that? In retrospect, I had it pretty good when I was sixteen. I worked part time. I could eat anything I wanted with no compromises. I had free room and board and a hot meal every night. What was so bad about that? Then I think way back to when I was extremely younger. When I would look forward to events that were literally days away. School trips to the zoo. Hot dog and hamburger days. Birthdays. Other kids birthdays. Saturday morning cartoons. Christmas day was a mind-blowing event in itself.
I've come to realize that I've got to adjust my mind set to that of an eight year old. Not that it's that big of an adjustment. I've got to stop focusing so much about what's going to happen years from now, but get some significant perspective on what's happening in the "here and now." As much as I have to be prepared for the future, I also have to accept what's happening in the present. So begins my effort to slow down the process of time and take each day as it comes. Good grief, I'm beginning to sound like some kind of sappy self-help columnist for crying out loud. Make sure you read my article next week when I'm going to talk about how to seek out and capture your future soul mate. Be good to one another! Bleargh.
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