Do you remember when you were a kid, how your parents were always telling you to appreciate that time in your life? That one day you would have a job and a life and responsibilities. When you’d complain about a school project or having to work part-time at the grocery store, they’d try to communicate perspective to you. Perspective, unfortunately or fortunately – take your pick – really must be learned first hand. It cannot be communicated or taught to someone by another, unless maybe by example, but even that has its limits. I’m not that old yet (haha), but I’ve been looking back on things in my life over the past few years. This is what I’ve come to conclude so far (bearing in mind that I am acutely aware at this stage in life that our ideas about our own lives changes with time and experience)…
So far life seems to progress in a building block kind of fashion. You are young and your sole purpose is to eat and poop and sleep. Then when you’re old enough your sole purpose is to play with your friends and learn how to eat with a fork and use the toilet. ;) Then you go to school and you can add on to the previous purposes: learning. Learning keeps building. As you learn one thing you are ready to learn more and continue building on what you’ve learned. You also start building life experience – another type of knowledge other than just what you’ve read in a book. Then you go to university and for most it seems this life experience starts to grow exponentially, at the same time you’re learning academically at your highest level so far. Then you finish and you start working. At work you start learning in a whole different way, as well as continuing to take courses and learning from books. More life experience gets thrown in there for the hell of it – both in and out of work. And then one day you’ve been doing your job for a while and you’re actually pretty good at it and you’re almost starting to become an expert in your field. Most people start the next stuff at the same time: getting married, having kids, buying houses, etc. Building, building, building. Life keeps building on itself. Now - if you’ve got kids you probably won’t get the chance to do the next thing (or you may have done it before you got a job or a kid, which gives you a very different perspective, not better or worse, just different from what I’m about to describe).
Imagine at this point just stopping it all. Quitting your job, moving away, and doing something different. Obviously that’s what I just did. And the really nice part is that since I’ve met several people here who’ve done the same thing I know I’m not alone in doing it. What I’m getting at here is that in doing so, my perspective has changed – and will likely continue to. I’ve kind of changed my course of thinking – in fact I’ve changed the course of my life thus far. It’s been really weird to just up and quit my job to be honest. The first couple of weeks here were like being on vacation, which it was, for all intents and purposes. Then by the fourth week it was sinking in that I’m not going back to work right now. Wow! Then I felt a bit lazy. I’ve been working, I realize, since I was 14!!!! I’ve never not had a job since then! And I’ve always been a hard worker, so not working has definitely felt weird the past couple of weeks, but at the same time I’ve got enough life experience to tell me that I need to enjoy this particular experience, as it’s likely not going to come around again anytime soon if ever. So that’s what I’ve been doing. And I really know now what my parents meant when they told me to enjoy having such little responsibility as a teenager when I felt like I had oh-so-much of it. I was a pretty responsible kid and I took things seriously, so even after growing out of the teenage angst years I still didn’t think I had that little responsibility at that time. Now I can see clearly that, as much as I may have had more responsibility than some, I had far less than an adult. I feel like today I’m almost living that teenage life again but I’m a lot older and more mature and better acquainted with who I am. So in essence, I’m enjoying it far more than I ever could have before. And I’m appreciating it like crazy! And really - how many of us get the chance (and then take it!) to press the pause button, or reset button, or whatever it might be - stop the constant building to the next stage of life and just enjoy where they’ve gotten themselves thus far and ruminate? It’s a real blessing. So… Just so you all know. Yes, I know where I’m at. I’ve got the responsibility of a teenager right now. And I’m loving it! I won’t complain about having to work part-time and do my school project. Ah, teenagers. What do they know?? ;)
So far life seems to progress in a building block kind of fashion. You are young and your sole purpose is to eat and poop and sleep. Then when you’re old enough your sole purpose is to play with your friends and learn how to eat with a fork and use the toilet. ;) Then you go to school and you can add on to the previous purposes: learning. Learning keeps building. As you learn one thing you are ready to learn more and continue building on what you’ve learned. You also start building life experience – another type of knowledge other than just what you’ve read in a book. Then you go to university and for most it seems this life experience starts to grow exponentially, at the same time you’re learning academically at your highest level so far. Then you finish and you start working. At work you start learning in a whole different way, as well as continuing to take courses and learning from books. More life experience gets thrown in there for the hell of it – both in and out of work. And then one day you’ve been doing your job for a while and you’re actually pretty good at it and you’re almost starting to become an expert in your field. Most people start the next stuff at the same time: getting married, having kids, buying houses, etc. Building, building, building. Life keeps building on itself. Now - if you’ve got kids you probably won’t get the chance to do the next thing (or you may have done it before you got a job or a kid, which gives you a very different perspective, not better or worse, just different from what I’m about to describe).
Imagine at this point just stopping it all. Quitting your job, moving away, and doing something different. Obviously that’s what I just did. And the really nice part is that since I’ve met several people here who’ve done the same thing I know I’m not alone in doing it. What I’m getting at here is that in doing so, my perspective has changed – and will likely continue to. I’ve kind of changed my course of thinking – in fact I’ve changed the course of my life thus far. It’s been really weird to just up and quit my job to be honest. The first couple of weeks here were like being on vacation, which it was, for all intents and purposes. Then by the fourth week it was sinking in that I’m not going back to work right now. Wow! Then I felt a bit lazy. I’ve been working, I realize, since I was 14!!!! I’ve never not had a job since then! And I’ve always been a hard worker, so not working has definitely felt weird the past couple of weeks, but at the same time I’ve got enough life experience to tell me that I need to enjoy this particular experience, as it’s likely not going to come around again anytime soon if ever. So that’s what I’ve been doing. And I really know now what my parents meant when they told me to enjoy having such little responsibility as a teenager when I felt like I had oh-so-much of it. I was a pretty responsible kid and I took things seriously, so even after growing out of the teenage angst years I still didn’t think I had that little responsibility at that time. Now I can see clearly that, as much as I may have had more responsibility than some, I had far less than an adult. I feel like today I’m almost living that teenage life again but I’m a lot older and more mature and better acquainted with who I am. So in essence, I’m enjoying it far more than I ever could have before. And I’m appreciating it like crazy! And really - how many of us get the chance (and then take it!) to press the pause button, or reset button, or whatever it might be - stop the constant building to the next stage of life and just enjoy where they’ve gotten themselves thus far and ruminate? It’s a real blessing. So… Just so you all know. Yes, I know where I’m at. I’ve got the responsibility of a teenager right now. And I’m loving it! I won’t complain about having to work part-time and do my school project. Ah, teenagers. What do they know?? ;)
1 comment:
What a great post! Yes, indeed, you've done something that very few of us would ever have the courage to do... because that's what it takes: courage. In order to become a butterfly, you need to be willing to stop being a caterpillar! (I can't take credit for that - read it somewhere! :-))
Keep on flying there, B'fly!
xox
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