Post-Birthday Ponderings . . . Youth is Wasted on the Young

As I sit and write this, I have been 25 years old for almost one whole month now. I was rather dreading this birthday, mostly because of what Josh refers to as my “Peter Pan Complex.” Basically . . . I don’t want to grow up. He says it is because of this that I still enjoy child-like things . . . for example, going to elementary school every day, hanging out with nine year olds, painting my nails crazy colors, and eating Goldfish and Life cereal. (Apparently, these are not adult foods.)

Beautiful birthday flowers from two of my students!

The past six months or so, whenever I would think about my birthday/turning 25/being a quarter of a century old, the John Mayer song “Stop This Train” would automatically pop into my head. (This is also the singer who penned the phrase “quarter-life crisis,” which is what I thought I would probably go through.) Here are a few of the lines:

Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't

But honestly won't someone stop this train

The train of life keeps moving. In fact, it just keeps getting faster. Yet even John Mayer eventually figures out that you can’t stop the train, and that’s not a bad thing. I, too, know this. I want all of the adult things in life (marriage, children, a house), but I just don’t want to grow up. I want the wisdom and experience of an adult without the age. 

Josh made me a delicious and definitely not nutritious birthday dinner - Fettuccine Alfredo (my fav!). Yum!

I started thinking about that scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” (Josh’s favorite movie of all time . . . everyone should watch it) where George and Mary are walking down the street together after having just re-met and fallen into the pool and all of that. They are singing “Buffalo Gals” and stop at the old house to throw a rock and break a window to make a wish. The old man who is watching them yells out, “Why don’t you kiss her ‘stead of talking her to death?” and when George seems confused by this he adds, “Ahh, youth is wasted on the wrong people.”

I got to Google Hangout chat with almost my entire family at once! (We missed you, Matt.) Technology is so wonderful.

As one who spends all working days with youth, I feel this is true . . . youth IS wasted on the young. They think they have it so hard. "Fourth grade is the hardest. Homework is the hardest. Baseball practice is the hardest. Not having the newest iPhone is the hardest." (Yes, I hear this.) The older you get, the easier and nicer those "hard" things of the past seem. When they’re even younger, little kids don’t want to take naps. I would LOVE to be able to take a nap every day! And so the cycle continues. One day, we'll look back on these "hard seminary days" with longing.

This is my last week with those young, silly 4^th grade kiddos. They have been such a great class. They revived my love for teaching. And this year has flown by! The more years that pass, the faster they go. My mom has explained this phenomenon to me like this: When you’re four years old, waiting for Christmas is torture. It seems to take so long. As it should, because you have to wait a quarter of the length of your life to be repeated. Now, Christmas comes after 1/25 of the amount of my life. And one day, I will only have to repeat 1/80 of my life before Santa returns. (I’m sure I did not explain the math correctly on that, but you get what I’m saying.)

A chilly birthday celebration weekend in Destin, FL. Yes, as if tanning was not difficult enough for me in the heat, this weekend confirmed it is impossible with goose bumps.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this. As I stated in the title, these are my post-birthday ponderings. Just musings about life. Interspersed with some fun birthday pics. And while Josh is still a youngin’ who doesn’t understand, he will in a few days when he joins me at the ripe old age of 25. (May 31^st to be exact . . . you should give him a hard time.)  :)