Are We There Yet?

Is this it? Is this what we have been waiting for? Have we painted our masterpiece yet? There are a few memorable milestones in our lives that get closely identified by age. Turning 16 seems to be pretty dramatic for the eligibility to earn a driver’s license. Reaching 18 and 21 years of age also mark specific privileges to be bestowed. Beyond that, many of the markers associated with the accumulating decades are rather intangible, until you hit an eligible age for medicare benefits or collecting social security.

During those in-between years, do you think there is bound to be a defining moment? If so, is it really something we will recognize? Logically, it makes sense to consider the wide range of events in a lifetime as having varying levels of significance. Many of the events may change us forever. Will one of them earn more attention than all the others? Maybe only in the movies. It is clear that we can’t all become the President, or King, or leader of our respective communities. So what will that ultimate accomplishment be for the rest of us?

When I was growing up, as the 5th of 6 kids, I had older siblings to watch, admire, and emulate. I was always impressed by their friends and the behaviors and accomplishments of the upper classes in high school. When I finally reached my Senior year in high school, it didn’t seem to correlate at all with the perceptions from my youth. It certainly didn’t feel like I “had arrived.” I just figured, then, that such a sensation must probably occur later in life.

One of those less tangible markers of increasing age that I noticed, occurred as a spectator of professional sports. For some reason, it seems to appear all at once, and suddenly the athletes for the teams I’ve been following my whole life, are younger than I am. That was a shocker. Then, like a baby boom of the baby boom, it happens again at the next level. Now, it is the coaches that are younger than I am. How the heck did that happen? Life is what happens while you are waiting for the defining moment to arrive.