As we drove along, I started seeing all the things I remembered as having some significance from my past, mostly my high school years. I saw houses where friends and classmates used to live and wondered about what happened to many of them. Did they live out the dreams that they had back then? Did that guy ever come out of the closet? Do they have kids yet? Did she marry him? I wondered if anyone's parents still lived in those houses and if they were in good health. I passed places that my friends and I hung around. The football field where many Friday nights were spent, the place I worked in the summer and all the good times we had there, the fast food place that we went to after the movies The longer I drove, the more I recalled how very lucky I am to have had the childhood I had. I was blessed with good friends, a wonderful family, no real problems, a great community that I still love. Looking back, I cannot recall any real tragedy in the grand scheme of things. I was dumped, I got a bad grade, I wasn't allowed to go to _____ with my friends. But in the long run, did it ruin my life like I thought I would back then? Nope. All those experiences and non-experiences made me who I am today and I don't think I would change anything. (Except maybe that another girl had the same prom dress I did...oh the horror! )
As I looked in my rear view mirror, I couldn't help but see the faces of my kids and have the feeling down deep that I want them to have a childhood as great as mine was. I want them to have fond memories when they walk, drive, teleport down memory lane when they have kids of their own. It was a nice ride...
and then I got a sandal thrown at the back of my head and snapped back to the present.
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