How often do we hear people say "I wish I could go back to..."
Whether they are referring to their glory days as a high school athlete, their partying days as a college student or even their days of eating dirt and watching What's New Scooby Doo it seems people always want to revisit the past in order to fulfill some void that is missing in their current life.
Not me.
Although I do miss Mystery Inc., disposable camera pictures with peace signs and middle school playlists featuring songs like Secondhand Serenade's "Fall for You" or Ludacris' "How Low", I do not have any desire to revisit parts of my life from my past and for one simple reason; the future is SO exciting.
I had an amazing childhood, riding my bike around the neighborhood, trick r' treating with all my friends and then proceeding to take all the candy from the people who were stupid enough to leave a bowl out on the front step with a sign saying "Not home, take one piece please". Getting drunk off of Rootbeer floats at birthday parties and receiving gift bags that always had that gross, gooey, dead fish-smelling puddy thing. What could beat all this?
Certainly not middle school because Hollister necklaces, braces and erections that came out of nowhere, but High School was definitely better. Learning how to drive, going to school dances, first kisses, Friday night football games and the bon fires that freshman year featured soda, but senior year featured UV Cake, which at the time was the bomb.com.
College was better. The dorms made you appreciate everything your parents did for you, eating crappy dining center food, learning just how much you suck on your own, stumbling home from Sigma Chi and learning how to adult (and failing at it) with the rest of the people your age.
It's exciting not knowing what's going to happen tomorrow, it's exciting knowing that there is so much left to do and it's exciting knowing that one day I am going to adopt a dog, find a career, get married, start a family, buy a house, etc.
All of these life events trump the days of wearing cargo shorts and Hollister everything and spending money on Taco Bell and Busch Lite.
Tricking r' treating was fun as kid, but there's no way it's going to be more fun than getting your kid all dressed up and watching them run up to each and every door on your block. The thought of walking through the door after a long, crappy day at work and having your dog greet you with a wagging tail, hearing your kids giggle late at night when they're supposed to be sleeping and getting into passive-aggressive arguments with your partner; who you love more than anything, but because they're alarm clock goes off before yours, you low-key hate them (but not really...but kind of).
This might all seem a little romanticized, and you know what it probably is, but so is the picture most people have in their heads of the past.
The past is the past, we know it, we've been there and we've done it. If it was good that's great, but It can't be relived, so focus on the future and set goals for tomorrow. Your glory days are far from over.
