"Now Is the Time"

The other day I was eating lunch with some of my friends. There were five of us, all males in ages ranging from thirty something to sixty something. One of the men stated he sure wished he cold be college age again. Three others quickly chimed in that they wished that too. I was the only one who said he liked the present age best.

The others looked at me like I had been dropped on my head. They could not understand why I would not want the wonderful years of my youth to live over again. I said I would like to stay the way I am today for the next fifty years as long as my health remained the same, and the people I loved stayed around and their health remained the same. No way, my friends responded. They would all like to be younger. Not me.

When I was college age I was constantly short of money. I worked part time when I was gong through school but that didn't give me enough. I was constantly trying to scrape together enough to date or to buy gas for a car. It was hurry up and catch up and then get behind again. Today I have some extra money and I don't worry nearly as much as I used to do.

Plus college was when the cheerleader and I broke up. So I spent the next few years worrying when I would meet the right girl. Or worrying that I might never meet the right girl. At the present time I have the right girl by my side and I am super happy. Why would I want to go back!

I think we reach a certain age of life when we start looking back too much. People I know who were miserable in high school and college now tell me they long for those days. Wake up! They weren't that great. Most of us didn't reach our capacity as far as personality, intelligence, and certainly maturity until we were well out of college.

In high school and college I was intense. Everything seemed to be do or die. I stewed and fretted over too many things - things that proved to be non-important or even non-existent. Today I am much more laid back and don't take life or myself nearly as seriously as I did then. If I had had a graph of my emotions it would have been highs and lows, highs and lows.

One of the wisest things I remember my Daddy telling me was there were no good old days. He had lived through the depression. These are the good old days he said, and he was right. Oh there are things I miss about the days gone by. It was a more innocent time in some ways, but every generation thinks that. 

I like the day to day excitement in the world of today. A few years ago cell phones weren't common, computers were for only the rich, and the mail still came to your home or post office boxes and not through e-mail. I like these changes. I am technologically challenged but I still like the changes.

There is something to be said for being happy with the present. It sure does make getting up each day more exciting. If I just wanted to live in the past I would stay in bed. Now is the time to be alive, so get it together and live it. I don't want to relive the past; I would rather anticipate the future.
 

 

 

 

 

©2007 Jackie K. Cooper

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