With Time and Age We Earn Experience

Back In The Day When I Was Young

I was once a young woman with many unrealistic expectations for my life and I was green to the reality of how things really are and work. I was silly enough to think that everything in my life would be perfect and basically go the way I wanted them to go without fail simply because it was my choice. It was my plan. I had book smarts for centuries but I had no experience to pair with what all was awaiting me. I had nerves of steel and the ambition of a self made millionaire. Let me tell it, I knew everything. I just knew that I was going to be able to avoid the hard times that other adults faced from time to time because I was much smarter and strong. Yeah right.

Life Itself Is a Teacher

Well, life showed me better. I have faced many unplanned and unexpected situations. Some were very uncomfortable and almost all of them were uninvited. I went through a phase of my youth where I complained about them more than I actually got off my backside and did something about it. When I look back at it now, I feel so foolish and ignorant. It was so the opposite of what I thought it would be. Sometimes we just don’t have all of the answers. Sometimes, we are not going to like what people say or do to us but at least we can control how we bounce back from it. Being young is a blessing because we are like super beings at that stage but it also has its disadvantages. We think we have it all figured out at that age, that we are the toughest beings in the world, that we have to have it our way, that no one can disrespect us, that we can do whatever we want whenever we want, and that we don’t have to plan ahead and think about the consequences of our actions but we really do. At that point in our lives, we are just too ignorant to know it.

The Value of Experience

Experience is our merit badge so to speak. It’s there to back up what we say we know and have lived through. No one can deny the experience that we get under our belts. They can simply be spiteful or give us our props. The thing is, experience comes with time and age; just like wisdom.

I Don’t Get Mad Anymore

This is why when my young adult children speak to me as if they know everything, have all of the answers, and think that they can trust everyone, I don’t get mad. I just smile because I remember when I was their age and I know that they just don’t know any better. I was once green just like them. I just do my very best to offer them the advice that I have gained from my own experience as well as others that I know and pray that they take it. I don’t want them to bump their heads like I did when I was their age. I don’t know any parent who does.

Be kind, stay safe, and stay alive

GG