All you can see are the years passing by
I took a mini-vacation to Virginia this past weekend.
I swam in a river, and laid in the sun, got two temporary tattoos and sat on a front porch and petted a horse and fed a goat. It was nice to get away, to be with some college friends, and remind myself that there is more to life than my jobs (both paid and volunteer) and the world inside my head. Which gets pretty crowded and messy at times.
And giving you perspective is what a vacation should be about, I think. I tend to spend a bit too much time analyzing my own life, to the point where I can't really see it clearly anymore.
I think my love of self-reflection is part of the reason I love anniversaries so much. Anniversaries of anything. Birthdays. Holidays. August 7. What was I doing last year on this date? What was I thinking? What was I doing? What was I like?
(See? Do you see how self-absorbed I am?)
I spent a lot of time journaling last year, and as a result I know exactly what I was doing on many days in 2005. August 7, 2005 was a Sunday, and I was pondering an email I'd received, and a date I'd just gone on. I know I talked to Joy on the phone. I'm sure I had gone to church that morning.
So, what about August 7, 2001? Five years ago.
I was living in an apartment in Lancaster, my first summer post-college, with Joy. I was a nanny. I had plans to leave Lancaster in early September to go somewhere else, undetermined at the time, for a year of volunteering. Obviously, that didn't happen. I was very unsure of the direction my life would take, but I was hopeful about it. Less so later.
August 7, 1996. Ten years ago.
I was about to start my senior year of high school. I was just back from a trip to Lancaster to visit my family. I was collecting job applications, including one for Bath & Body Works, where I ended up working during my senior year. My manager's name was Kaylee, and she was 26 and an art history major. I thought she was a) so old, and b) so crazy for managing a B&B Works. Now, I understand.
So, I remember August 7, 2005 vividly, and 2001 and 1996 vaguely, I have no memories of other August 7's. I don't know what I was doing or thinking. However, my journals continue to this day, so I'm sure that next year I will be thinking about August 7, 2006, and what I was doing and thinking today. How young I was at 27-almost-28. And how things have changed. Because lots of things have changed since August 7, 2005. For the better, mostly.
I hope I can say the same next year.
I swam in a river, and laid in the sun, got two temporary tattoos and sat on a front porch and petted a horse and fed a goat. It was nice to get away, to be with some college friends, and remind myself that there is more to life than my jobs (both paid and volunteer) and the world inside my head. Which gets pretty crowded and messy at times.
And giving you perspective is what a vacation should be about, I think. I tend to spend a bit too much time analyzing my own life, to the point where I can't really see it clearly anymore.
I think my love of self-reflection is part of the reason I love anniversaries so much. Anniversaries of anything. Birthdays. Holidays. August 7. What was I doing last year on this date? What was I thinking? What was I doing? What was I like?
(See? Do you see how self-absorbed I am?)
I spent a lot of time journaling last year, and as a result I know exactly what I was doing on many days in 2005. August 7, 2005 was a Sunday, and I was pondering an email I'd received, and a date I'd just gone on. I know I talked to Joy on the phone. I'm sure I had gone to church that morning.
So, what about August 7, 2001? Five years ago.
I was living in an apartment in Lancaster, my first summer post-college, with Joy. I was a nanny. I had plans to leave Lancaster in early September to go somewhere else, undetermined at the time, for a year of volunteering. Obviously, that didn't happen. I was very unsure of the direction my life would take, but I was hopeful about it. Less so later.
August 7, 1996. Ten years ago.
I was about to start my senior year of high school. I was just back from a trip to Lancaster to visit my family. I was collecting job applications, including one for Bath & Body Works, where I ended up working during my senior year. My manager's name was Kaylee, and she was 26 and an art history major. I thought she was a) so old, and b) so crazy for managing a B&B Works. Now, I understand.
So, I remember August 7, 2005 vividly, and 2001 and 1996 vaguely, I have no memories of other August 7's. I don't know what I was doing or thinking. However, my journals continue to this day, so I'm sure that next year I will be thinking about August 7, 2006, and what I was doing and thinking today. How young I was at 27-almost-28. And how things have changed. Because lots of things have changed since August 7, 2005. For the better, mostly.
I hope I can say the same next year.
posted by Melanie at 11:25 PM
