Speed Limit: Learning to drive can be pretty exciting
stuff, especially once you get comfortable with where you are going. At a certain point, I think most youth
(including myself) just sort of lost sight of speed limits and simply drove as
fast as they wanted. There was no speed
limit high enough to satisfy me! But
now, as an adult, I cannot stand the “speedsters” out there who tailgate
unnecessarily, pass on the right, and try to go 20+ mph over the limit. In my “old age” I am all about setting that
cruise control and maintaining a safe stopping distance!
Age: It’s funny how your perspective of “old” changes
over time. I think I am finally starting
to understand what people mean when they say you are only as old as you
feel. I will be turning 30 next year,
but I feel younger than that so who really cares what my age is. This year I have also become acutely aware of
how ignorant I am about babies. How old
before solid foods? When do they start
talking? How much should they sleep each
day? How much can they eat/drink? Life really is a journey, huh?
Sleep: My life has been a roller-coaster when it
comes to sleep. When I was in preschool
and kindergarten, I would get anxious about being late to school so I would get
up in the middle of the night and put on my school clothes and backpack, and go
back to sleep. I may also be the only
4-year-old in history who demanded an alarm clock. I wanted to be prepared! Later in my school career I would wake myself
up a little before 6am to make sure I caught “Sonic the Hedgehog” with my
sister. Sometimes we would even get up
earlier than that to squeeze in extra practice on the Nintendo. In high school, I developed a terrible habit
of staying up to watch Seinfeld which ended just after midnight. We left for school at 6:15am so I was not
sleeping a lot those years. Maybe that’s
why I would come home from school and fall asleep watching “The Closing Bell”
with Maria Bartiromo (#loser). Perhaps
all of these sleep-depriving habits drove me to my next phase. No amount of sleep could satisfy me in
college. I was in the honors program at
Miami which meant I got priority scheduling.
This meant I could avoid the early classes and also strategically plan
my classes to allow for afternoon naps.
This was also when I became notorious for sleeping in on the weekends
until 11am or noon (and yes, I was still napping too!). Now, in my real adult life, I feel energetic
and alive when I can manage 7 hours of sleep.
However, most days it’s more like 5 or 6. I tried to sleep in this weekend but couldn’t
make it more than 8 hours. Funny how
things change :P
Food and Gas: Thinking back to the times I would go out to
eat with my friends in middle school or high school, it’s funny how my
perspective has changed. I used to be
outraged at how I had to spend $6 at the mall food court to get a pepsi and
some Sbarro pizza. Now I can’t get out
of Panera without dropping $10 or more. I
would get annoyed at Applebee’s when I had to pay $2 for my fountain drink on
top of my food cost – oh, and what’s this whole concept of a tip!? Gas is another funny thing. In high school I was sharing the cost of
gasoline with my sisters. I usually had
to pay for 1 fill-up per month. At
$1.19/gallon it usually took around $12 to fill up the car. This would wipe me out for that week – life was
rough! Little did I know that I’d be
battling to make ends meet with my first job out of college balancing
$4.25/gallon gas with a long commute.
Now that gas has moderated again, I almost don’t even pay attention when
I fill up my car. I get what I can in
fuel perks and consider it a necessary evil.
Wages: My first hourly job was in guest services
(later food services) at the Columbus Zoo.
It was a great job – the zoo was always busiest when I was on break from
school. My first summer there I got paid
$5.25/hour. After withholdings I was not
making a whole lot. But that tiny wage
at 40-50 hours per week was enough to make me feel “rich”. Suddenly I could afford 2 pieces of pizza at
Sbarro – yum! Over the course of many
summers and winters at the zoo I became a team leader and started making some
good money. Combine that with plenty of
overtime hours (sometimes pushing 70 hours per week) and I was a happy camper. My final summer there I worked at the zoo’s
golf course (again, in food service) and made more than $10/hour plus tips on
league nights. Now I really felt rich! During school years at Miami I worked at the
bookstore. Back to $5.25/hour! But this job came with free books – so worth
it! To be honest, working at the zoo was
a great experience. It taught me
accountability, money management, time management, and the value of good
old-fashioned manual labor. Too bad in
my adult life overtime is no longer “time and a half”!
Church: Warning – short rant forthcoming! Remember when church felt like an
eternity? Now, I don’t really even
notice how long church is. And it amazes
me when people complain about how “long” a Catholic wedding ceremony
takes. You’re an adult. It’s only an hour. Get over it.
(#stepsoffpedestal #sorryiamnotsorry)
School Papers: Throughout my education I generally hated
writing papers. Research was boring to
me. I’d rather solve some math problems. I never knew what to write. What do you mean this needs to be 5-7
pages? What could I possibly have to say
for that long?! Now, as I am getting my
masters, I can’t seem to shut up. I have
had no problem filling up 20 or more pages on a short Sunday afternoon. Recently I had an assignment that limited me
to 5 pages double-spaced. That was a
real challenge! I’m not sure what
changed between high school/college and now, but apparently I have a lot to say
J
The list of changing perspectives could go on and on. But it’s fun to reflect on how my lift has
evolved and how what was normal is now totally different. What has changed for you?
