Saturdays

My first two years in college, I worked at a bank inside a grocery store in the evenings and on Saturdays. After staying up until unholy hours of the night on Fridays, I would stumble out of bed on Saturday morning around 6:00, iron my clothes, shower, shave, get dressed, and make my way to bank by 7:30. Because Saturdays were never very busy at the bank, I would stand there and watch people, particularly couples that seemed to be a few years older than me, and think to myself, "Man... it must be nice to be graduated, married, and working a real job that doesn't require Saturday hours." While I was busy trying to figure out how to make that month's tuition payment, finish all my assignments, and still manage to have a decent social life, here were these people leisurely strolling through Wal-Mart on a Saturday morning who had no homework to worry about, no tuition payments, and a social life that was pretty much already established. I wondered if I would ever get to go to the grocery store with my wife on a Saturday morning and enjoy the freedoms of a life unhindered by college responsibilities.

I believe that time has arrived for me. This morning I slept in until 9:00, and then I went and bought a bag of peaches from a guy at a road side stand. I came home and ate a peach for breakfast, mowed the grass (there's something almost enjoyable about moving your yard on a nice Saturday morning), and then laid on my raft in the pool for about an hour. When DW came home, we folded laundry together, showered, got dressed, and we went and had lunch together at her favorite restaraunt. The waitress brought us cake afterwards, and not wanting to be rude, we enjoyed it. We came home after that, hung out for a little while, did some things around the house, took a nap together, and now she's doing something in the kitchen and I'm blogging.

We didn't actually go to the grocery store (we usually do that on Sunday's), but the point is that (even though DW is a grad student) we are in a totally different stage of life than we were in just a few years ago as undergraduate students. Being in college was fun and adult life certainly has its fair share of not-so-fun realities and responsibilities, but the more I think about what my life is like today compared to what it was like my first couple years of college (and I really enjoyed my college experience), the more I appreciate the stage of life I'm at right now. It's not perfect and there are certainly things I miss about being in college, but being an adult unfettered by the chains of academic deadlines, social pressures, and part-time weekend jobs is pretty cool.

Typically I tend to be someone who is never really satisfied with my current situation. I'm always usually looking forward to something in the future. Whether it's an upcoming vacation, college football season, christmas, the day I get my first promotion at work, the day I buy a new car, having kids, or something else that I haven't already experienced or don't already have, I always seem to have a difficult time being satisfied with where I'm currently at in life.

Well... at least for a little while, I'm going to try to make a more concerted effort to enjoy the stage of life I'm at and not wish it away on, "I can't wait until when's."

My name is DH, I'm a young adult with adult responsibilities, and life is good.