Hello I Must Be Going

I got ‘carded’ at a restaurant not long ago.

It made me smile when the first response to my drink order was to be asked for proof of my age. Can’t tell you the last time someone was worried about whether I was of legal age.

I just smiled, pulled out my driver’s license and told the waitress that I graduated from college last century. At the time I didn’t think twice about it because I was just being silly.

It was just one of those innocuous comments that come back for a visit long after they have passed between our lips. No reason to think twice about it, nothing serious to be found within it, or so I thought.

A few weeks later my son walked into the kitchen and effortlessly reached into a cabinet that had once been inaccessible to him without a stool.

I stood in the corner and watched him grab a few more items as he prepared his own lunch and realized if the next chunk of time follows a certain path we could be at the tail end of his living at home.

It caught me by surprise.

Could he really be that old?

Could I?

It is kind of a ridiculous question because I was in the room the day he was born. I know exactly how he came to be from start to finish but that didn’t make me wonder if maybe my math was flawed.

That little man of mine isn’t so little any more.

Four years of high school have started and within a blink they’ll pass by and he’ll be off to college. It is not ridiculous to say that he could go to school out of state and never move back home.

Mind you, none of this is a bad thing.

The point of parenting is to raise kids to become independent and productive members of society.

But I would be lying if I said it didn’t bother me a little bit to realize how close to the moment where he really heads off on his own.

How Did It Get Late So Soon?

It is hard enough for me to accept that it is almost 30 years since I graduated high school or that it is more than 20 since I earned my degree but both are easier than recognizing how old the kids are.

My baby isn’t really a baby anymore either.

She is a girl racing full speed towards becoming a teenager with no regard for what her fast pace is doing to my hair.

This is not to say that there haven’t been a number of moments where I wonder who stopped the clock and agonized over how long some things were taking.

There have been plenty of those and I anticipate there will be more to come. That is the joy of the roller coaster nature of life.

But it doesn’t mean I don’t want to stop the clock for my own purposes and find a way to stand at the side of the pond skipping rocks with the kids.

Nor am I ready to concede my place as strongest and fastest in the house.

You might see those as being silly needs, but I take pleasure in those being among my biggest concerns because they are indicators about how many problems I have.

If those are among the top things I focus upon than I know life is pretty good.

Now if I can only figure out that time stopping thing, that would be one hell of a nifty trick.