I have a confession to make. For the first time, I realize I am no longer a Spring Chicken. Though I consider myself a Summer Rooster at only 60 years young, I used to think of myself as a young’n, that age ain’t nothing but a number, and that if I REALLY wanted to, I could still duplicate my immortal feats of youth.
That’s true for me until I talk with my teenage daughter, Mikayla.
Today, while taking her to school, I shared a story about my conversation with Erica, a fellow Board Member of Beat the Streets Chicago, at a social event we held. I told her we discussed the challenges of raising children who don’t have to face the same trials we did growing up. You know, the classic “we walked uphill for miles to and from school” stories.
As I kept comparing her childhood to mine, doing my best to show how much better off she is than I, my siblings, and peers were, reality hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized that to her, I’m old. I also realized that I was born in the 60s and she was born in 2012. To her, I was effectively born in the last century!
I paused to think about it for a moment and thought, OMG, what would I have thought of anyone born in the 1800s telling me how it used to be! Needless to say, I started reaching for my walker, and after putting a bit of lube on the ‘old’ joints, realized it could wait another 30+ years.
As we continued the conversation all the way to school (about an hour in Chicago), I had flashbacks to my parents talking with my friends and me. I realized they really did know more than I did at the time, even though I thought they were so outdated that they had no clue.
No matter what you think you know at every vantage point in your life, those who have gone through it and arrived on the other side successfully have a picture of the same experience that is so much more colorful, vivid, and deeply understood than our less mature minds can grasp. We don’t know what we don’t know, and the guidance from those who do can not only shorten our learning curve but also lead us away from a lot of unnecessary, massive pain.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20. The bottom line is that we all have to learn on our own, and nothing… I mean nothing… replaces time and experience. You can be mentored by the best in any specific area, you can read every book ever written on a subject, and you can even surround yourself with the best of the best in that area. No matter what they say… you’ve still got to go through the experience yourself to really understand the lesson.
The best lesson I’ve learned from being a father of a teenager is this: I’ve got a lot to learn! I’ve got to keep learning as much as possible for my own growth because you can’t give what you don’t have. And…if there is any generation that needs our experience more than any other, it is definitely teenagers.
Most are smarter than we ever dreamed, except when it comes to the most important subject of all… LIFE… and boys! Fellas, don’t worry—I traded my interest in collecting guns for collecting instincts, wisdom, and the ability to spot bad intentions from a mile away.
Hoooo boy, if I only knew how bad I really was. Then again, my parents did say something about that, if I recall.
Funny how I don’t quite remember that one?
Be Larger Than…
