I get it now!

I was 20. I had been married 6 months. I had bought my second car on my own, been to a year of college and was saving to buy our first house.

This is what happened.

An old family friend whom I hadn't seen in awhile came up to me and said "It's so good to see you! Now lets see, are you a Sophmore or Junior this year? Pretty soon you'll be on your own!"

I went from pleasant to livid... (in my mind)... and smiled sweetly (I hope it was sweetly) and said,
"Actually I am finishing my first year of college!"

In my head... I thought "I will NEVER do that to someone!"
I was one of those blessedly-cursed people who when I was in high school looked like I was in college and when I was in college was asked if I was there doing running start. It drove me CRAZY!

Fast forward to present day and it gets SCARY!

This just happened last week!

I was at a coffee stand in the town I used to live (8 years ago) and noticed my barista was a kid that was in elementary school when I was a school secretary. I was so excited to see him all grown up and had to remind him who I was (I look different... 4 pregnancies tend to do that) and then I did the UNTHINKABLE..

I said "So, are you a senior in high school? First year of college?"

Friends, this is what he said. (trying to be polite but obviously annoyed)
"Actually, I'm 23 and already have a degree.."

OMYWORD! I wanted to die... or at least rewind and start the conversation over!
Of course... after, I did simple math and realized 8 years since I last saw him put him WAY out of high school.

So, embarrassed, I gave him a big tip, and drove off with my iced coffee... which it was a good thing it was iced since I needed to cool down my red cheeks!

I get it now...
When those "older" people were SO off on my age and stage in life, it wasn't necessarily a reflection on me... just on the fact that outside of teen years.. time goes at a different pace.. Its hard to believe its been 8 years since that portion of life... You don't feel like you yourself are that much older so its hard to compute that someone who was a "kid" in your mind could POSSIBLY be that much older!

I get it now.

Know what else I "get" now?

When we brought home our first child we heard this allllll the time.
"enjoy every moment... it goes by so fast!"

"Time flies when you have little ones"

I remember thinking I knew what they meant... and that in all reality it was just a catchphrase of sorts that everyone said.

Nope... I get it now... it literally feels like our children should still be in diapers.. not in school.
It FEELS like I am still in my early 20's...
Its as if our minds don't age, or keep up with the speed of time.
Its not a catchphrase! Its not idle words. It's actually, quite literally, that time flies when you have littles.

I get it now.

I suppose I could write blogs upon blogs about that things I am starting to "get" as I get a wee bit "older" but this is all for now.

Enjoy each moment, it does fly.

And don't say "I"ll never....." It could come back to bite you like it has me!
(more than once unfortunately!)

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