Things I would tell my ___ year old self
Recently I have seen a number of posts about Things I would tell my 20-year-old self, or 21 or 25, the number doesn’t really matter.
It may be that as I gain more experience based on my time on earth and many of the Facebook posts and other blogs I read tend to be people in my age range. Not all of them, of course, as I read based on interests and knowledge and learned a long time ago that age and knowledge can be separate. (Don’t tell this to my kids yet).
But back to the Tell Myself posts, I have read a few of them and decided to add my own.
My advise to my year old self is:
1-
2-
3-
4-
5-
There is my top 5. There are others and I could make a top 10 or top 100 list but it would all be the same.
All of my experiences wins, losses, mistakes, dumb ideas, “what could possibly go wrong moments” and all the rest combined to make me who I am today.
You are the same way. Would you really go back and change things if you could?
As we have seen in the movies even one small change cascades into a different universe.
Every so often we all get into a bit of a funk, not the good funk, or the Uptown Funk but the other funk. You may even be frustrated about events that you really can’t change, or things you want to do but can’t because of other influences but it’s all part of being who we are.
The difference is what are you going to do about it.
This weekend we had two daughters in two different competitions in two different cities. One was easy, as all we had to do was put her on a bus and pick her up when it was done. The other required some driving and lots of sitting and watching.
On Friday I decided I would get up at 4:30 am on Saturday morning so I could drive 2 1/2 hours to be at the competition that we didn’t have to be at. I wanted to surprise my daughter.
After I arrived I ran into the teacher and asked her not to let my daughter know I was there.
Once the performance was done I was waiting in the hall with some flowers. When she saw me she ran up and squeezed the stuffing out of me for about 2 or 3 minutes.
That was a moment when I realized I would not change a thing.
As John Acuff wrote in his book Start sometimes you stop and say to yourself “How did I get here?”
Later we took some pictures and I was awarded the Best Dad Award by my daughter on Facebook.
The competition awards were going to be later that evening so I checked the calendar and realized I could just make it to the last performance of my other daughter 2 1/2 hours away.
I arrived 3 minutes early after parking and running to the theater only to find out that they had been moved up by a few hours. At least I wasn’t just a couple of minutes late.
My reward for the drive? A big hug from my daughter.
I chatted with my wife for a few minutes and after a couple of stops to check the Laundromats made it home so I could relax for a few minutes before the bus got back at 11:30 pm.
I’ve had people tell me they get tired just listening to me talk about my days but it’s all worth it.
Today as I write this I am sitting in the historic Alabama Theater in downtown Birmingham at a dance competition. My daughter has one dance at 12:15 and awards at 5. So there is some time in between for us to find a cool place for lunch. Just us today.
It’s a busy life but fortunately, I don’t have to worry about work getting in the way. iPad, WiFi and I’m in business.
It sure would be cool to renovate one of these old buildings down here…..
Ken
