- Thursday, October 15, 2009
- Thursday, October 1, 2009
- Thursday, September 24, 2009
- Thursday, September 17, 2009
For your information, despite a popular song proclaiming the opposite, I'm here to tell you that time is not on your side. No, it isn't.
First of all, there's never enough of it. It goes by indecently fast, and we are all in disbelief every time we admit our age or say the date aloud.
It cannot be Sept. 10 already, are you kidding me? My children are how old, in what grade? Didn't I just pay the cable bill, and rent and electricity?
This thing called "time" is such a thief. It steals our youth while aging our families, forcing us to leave behind familiar circumstances and accept constant adaptations. But time also provides us with the best things, too. We just have to make sure we slow down enough every once in awhile to let them soak in.
Time and change -- what a perfect marriage between two bittersweet concepts. They reward as much as punish, give as much as take, and are wanted as much as they are shunned.
Five years ago this month, I moved to Key West after requiring a change of scenery from the Kansas town where I grew up. I embarked upon the journey to this island with a one-way ticket and my best friend Megan (whom I'd instantly recruited as my lifetime partner in crime upon our initial meeting in Kindergarten).
Despite the comforts of home that we were leaving behind, we couldn't wait to get on with the show and get our lives started in the Keys. Too bad Mother Nature had different plans and taught us life's little lesson on how to "hurry up and wait."
It was Sept. 1 in 2004, and we were immediately bombarded with hurricanes. Everyone in Kansas became very familiar with the Tropical Updates on the Weather Channel and voiced their concern about how we made the wrong choice at the wrong time.
On the contrary, my friends, it was so the right time and, coincidentally, the time of our lives!
The island was buzzing with excitement amidst the impending storms. It delayed our job search and obligated us to attend as many hurricane parties as possible. Mission accomplished.
We were 24-year-old, recent college graduates excited about our brand new bikes and anxious to stake our claim on the island. We were as free as we could be, surrounded by the sea and there couldn't have been a better time for a change.
Luckily we weren't washed away and we didn't have to run home with our tails between our legs. We eventually managed to wrangle up a few jobs, a ton of friends, a million bug bites and the satisfactory status of becoming island girls.
On the other hand, over time we also managed to lose a few jobs, our shiny new bikes, flip flops, purses and phones. Apparently that's part of obtaining island girl status and a right of passage.
No matter how grateful I am to have changed locations and moved to the Florida Keys, going home makes me realize how precious time is and how grateful I am for the little things in life that never seem to change -- like how Grandma's perfume lingers long after her hugs; and how hard Mom works to make sure my room is perfect; and how I can always hear dad shuffle into the kitchen for a heaping spoonful of ice cream in the middle of the night. I cherish the familiar sound of loved ones' laughter, the smells and comfort of the kitchen, and the feeling of just being home because "there's no place like it."
It's inevitable that our relationships will flourish and grow or fizzle and fade over the years depending on how much time and effort we put into them. The same goes with our jobs, homes and extended families. Opportunity knocks impatiently and then sometimes it just walks away, as do people, which is why we have to make the most of the little time we're given.
While I just celebrated my fifth anniversary of becoming a local, Megan only lasted eight months in the tropics before bouncing across the country and into the arms of an Aussie whom she married last month in Kansas.
Her wedding was spectacular, being back home was more comfortable than ever, and I was surrounded by the people I love more than anything in the world. Let's just say that I had the time of my life. Again.
To further inform Miss Informed, please e-mail trork@keysnews.com, and to catch up on previous ramblings, visit tracirork.blogspot.com.