This week things are just starting to go back to normal after the holiday season... Ok, so really for the first time since November... Ok, maybe NEVER. But things are going back to being as normal as they get.
Kind of.
Before my grandparents left for home in California this week (delayed, of course) Gramma said, "I enjoy keeping up with your blog. It's hard for me to imagine what life is like for young people in your time of life. And the things that seem important..."
I don't remember her exact words, and I didn't understand what she meant until she wrote me an email:
Originally I thought she meant that this to shall pass, and I felt a little stung, took it as a sign that I should let things go, and not get so hung up on stuff; and maybe, for me, it was that too. But really she just meant that our lives are different, and that we can learn from each other.
And I am becoming more aware that even the lives and experiences of my peers, my high school and college classmates, are different than mine, and more so as we get farther and farther from our walk across the stage in Sköglund gym in May of 2011. My own experiences aren't matching up 100% with what I anticipated when I was 21, and I am always learning and coming to new hurdles and puzzles and gifts that were never there before, that I had never even imagined.
And it is, indeed, an object of amazement.
Kind of.
Before my grandparents left for home in California this week (delayed, of course) Gramma said, "I enjoy keeping up with your blog. It's hard for me to imagine what life is like for young people in your time of life. And the things that seem important..."
I don't remember her exact words, and I didn't understand what she meant until she wrote me an email:
"I am utterly amazed at the things you have to deal with on a daily basis! At your age, I was already a mother twice, so my interests and activities were entirely different than yours. But that occupation was much more ordinary for young people then - and we were in a slower-paced time and place, to be sure. And I never had to go to work outside the home, for which I'm eternally thankful. Sure, there were challenges and hurdles - of different types. I did earn a little cash watching the neighbor's child while she went to classes - but we had nothing like the expenses and liabilities you face - most of them legally required. Our state college tuition was free (!) Just a few small fees and our books - and the hospital charged something like $100 when the babies were born."This is a very different life than the one I know now. Of course some of those things are to be expected; we know that things cost more now, and that on average we get married and have kids later. But to a great extent the differences in new adulthood two generations later are attributable not to inflation but to a grand-scale cultural shift.
Originally I thought she meant that this to shall pass, and I felt a little stung, took it as a sign that I should let things go, and not get so hung up on stuff; and maybe, for me, it was that too. But really she just meant that our lives are different, and that we can learn from each other.
And I am becoming more aware that even the lives and experiences of my peers, my high school and college classmates, are different than mine, and more so as we get farther and farther from our walk across the stage in Sköglund gym in May of 2011. My own experiences aren't matching up 100% with what I anticipated when I was 21, and I am always learning and coming to new hurdles and puzzles and gifts that were never there before, that I had never even imagined.
And it is, indeed, an object of amazement.
posted from Bloggeroid
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