With Wisdom Comes Years

I remember one specific Saturday, about eleven years ago: it was early in the morning, say maybe seven, and I was up-and- running.  I ate my cereal while I watched a few cartoons, went downstairs and made a few fairy dolls, played some barbies, had a sandwich and a juice box for lunch, went for a dip and game of mermaids in the pool, got out, dried-off, and laid in the grass.

While laying in the yard, I remember my mom yelling out the screen door that dinner would be in a few minutes, and that I wasn’t allowed at the table in my swimsuit so I’d better run and change if I wanted anything to eat. I remember wondering what in the world I was going to do after dinner.  I had already done everything that day that I could think of, why was this day taking so long to be over with?

I wish for days like that now.  My days off work seem to fly by, where as when I was younger the suckers seemed to have no end.  I used to get bored easily, now I can’t seem to find enough time in my day to do everything on my list.

I never believed people when they said that the older you get, the faster the years seem to go, but it’s true.  Especially on the good days. 

I was driving in the car this morning and I passed a lot of different people, all distinctly much older than myself, and I wondered, what it felt like to be forty or fifty and to know that your life was already half- over. I wondered that if I asked any of those people for a grade of their life up until that moment, what kind of answers I would receive.  Are they satisfied with their pasts?  Did they accomplish all they’d wished they would up till now?  What was the number one thing, if they were given the chance, that they would change, and what would they leave exactly as it was? 

Of all the lives there is for one to live, I have always wanted only one version.  A home, a faithful husband, children, horses, dogs/cats, and a large green yard for them all to enjoy.  

As perfect as that all may sound, there’s always dirt in life that you can’t avoid; arguments and differences with friends or family, deaths, accidents, sicknesses, weaknesses, and etc.  My grandparents and parents always said to me “with years comes wisdom,” but I agree only to a certain extent.  Yes, as you age you experience more and learn more, but more so that with that wisdom comes years.  I don’t exactly know how to describe to you the difference that I see between those two sayings, but there is a distinction to be made between them.  They don’t, as similar as they are to one another, say quite the same thing.

To me, it says that at any age we are capable of learning anything and everything there is to know about life.  And as we get older, the things we experience are essentially the same, just put within a different setting.  Kids were mean on the playground and kids will be mean in high school.  Some bosses sucked when you worked at the local DQ and others in your later career will be the same.  Decisions between candy needed to be made when you had only quarters as profit from your lemonade stand, and decisions between name brands and generic can be difficult when you allow yourself half a paycheck to go shopping.  The harder you work, the more you can receive.  Friends come and go, boys come and go, and the world keeps turning a full circle no matter what is happening at the present time. 

  With the wisdom you’ve always had comes only more years to use it wisely.