"The Kids Table". The table each of us has done our time at, the table of silly shenanigans, little teasing and bickering siblings, the table for the holidays, and for the young and the dreamers. From the time we were young enough to sit on our own with our feet hanging off the chairs, to the time we were in those cringe-worthy middle school eras with questionable wardrobe choices, and even extending to the very cusp of adulthood in which we were to be questioned about our futures, the table has seen it all.
You get accustomed it, it becomes like second nature to go take your seat there in those friend and family holiday gatherings. You form a bond with those other young'uns that join you there, your cousins, your friends, your siblings, all taking their place like Arthur's knights at the round table. But just as Arthur's round table dispersed one by one over the years, so does yours. Over the years those numbers start to dwindle and you realize your comrades in communion have gone different ways.
Suddenly, the day you somehow forgot was bound to happen will come: graduation day. No, not the kind of graduation you are thinking of, not the one of high school or college or the marking of your eighteenth birthday, but your graduation from the Kid's Table. One day you'll sit down at the family table, the "Adult Table" if you will, and take your place among the elders. You may be the first to leave or the last to leave the Kid's Table, but either way that day will come the time is different for everyone.
Then you will enter the days of sharing a glass of wine with your parents, the days of being questioned about adulthood and your future, the days of trying to escape politics at the table and the sophisticated talk of responsibilities.
But never forget your days at the Kid's Table, no matter how far they are behind you. You'll see that some of those comrades, cousins or siblings have joined you at that the elders' table and you'll remember those days of youthful bliss and irresponsibility shared together at the Kid's Table. Others will simply wander off to other tables in other houses many miles away. You'll see some of those dreams schemed at that table come into fruition, while you'll see others simply become daydreams in passing. You'll nostalgically remember the games played and jokes made and wish you could go back to that innocence, but you know you've earned your place with the elders.
So this is to you: the knights still in combat at the Kid's Table, the dreamers and the jokesters. Some of us wait for the day when we join the family table, while others of us don't want to ever leave the Kid's Table. Either way, enjoy those days while you can. Be silly, be young. Make memories and friendships with the ones sitting on your either sides at that table for you never know when your last communion will be. Make up that dance to perform for your family, play tag, and eat lots of food. Enjoy your irresponsibility. Because the cost of sitting at the family table means leaving all that behind. Take it from the graduate.
