7 Year Itch...

June 11th will be my son's 7th birthday.

I'm still trying desperately to figure out where 7 years have gone.

I remember as a child my parents telling me to appreciate my childhood because it would be gone before I knew it. I also remember being desperate to move forward and onward as soon as possible. 16 would never come. 19 (which was important on Grand Island because it was the legal drinking age in Canada) was ages away. 21 took forever to get to. And then I'm not really sure what or how it happened, but I turned 21 and time suddenly sped up.

I liken it to a really slow moving hurricane that you know is coming. You're watching it get closer and closer on the news. You can see the radar image as it moves toward land. You know it's inevitable that it's going to hit but it's moving so slowly that you start to believe that maybe, just maybe, it will putter out before it makes landfall. Then suddenly, almost unexpectedly, it hits. It picks you up with all its rain and wind and throws you around like a rag doll. You're suddenly engulfed in a whirlwind of hysteria and noise and you have no control. You know rationally that you could be making better decisions to get yourself out of this, but everything's moving so quickly that you have no choice but to sit back and enjoy the ride. You spin to the point that you are physically dizzy and emotionally exhausted. And then... as quickly as it picked you up, the hurricane passes. You're dropped down out of mid air, right on your ass, scratching your head. It is then that you realize that you have reached the unthinkable. Your thirties! It is at this point that we typically pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and vow to never wait out a storm like that again. We take all the lessons we learned in those tumultuous times and are finally able to take a deep breath and move slowly, calmly forward. There's no hurry anymore. No rush. Just relief that we made it through the hurricane in one piece.

Obviously, children will not believe you when you tell them this. It is a lesson that we all must learn for ourselves. My son, oddly enough, seems more interested in going backward than in going forward. Michael's the type of kid who's always longing for "the old days". He's in no hurry to be a teenager. "Being a teenager means you have a lot more homework" he wisely tell me. I secretly hope that he'll keep this spirit alive for years and years to come. I'm in no rush for him to grow up. ;o)