The best years of your life

Sometimes...I want to go backwards in time. Just re-do all kinds of things. And just enjoy and re-live others. I enjoyed my life very much at the age of four. I do remember being four, as weird as that is. I remember things that I did, said, and places I went. I remember that I had a really cool purple watch. I liked the Smurfs. I liked to learn new words that adults used and then use them in conversation. "Ridiculous"...🙂 I remember being forced to take naps and not taking them, and instead playing with my toys in my room. I had this wooden sculpture my aunt made for me, it was my name, carved perfectly out of wood. And it sat on my dresser, and I stared at it for a long time, wondering how it got to be so perfectly carved.

I enjoyed also my ninth year. I remember I had my birthday party at the roller skating rink. We did the hokey pokey, I got a lot of Barbies that year. I had a New Kids on the Block t-shirt and black stretch pants that I truly believed to be the most ingenious outfit ever concieved. I had a perm. Shriek. It was a good year. I was somewhat popular at school, but not a mean popular kid.

I had fun when I was a freshman in high school. Everything seemed new, new relationships, real ones, new school, dance team performances during football games, boys galore and no idea that a lot of them weren't as unbelievable perfect as I thought they were...a new era in life. Lots of opportunities. I was 15...done with the trauma of entering early teenagerhood, but not having to deal with the stress of adulthood.

My last really, really good year was from the age of seventeen to eighteen. First adult experiences. No more braces. High school almost over, and then it was. Settled home life, not so turbulent anymore as when I was a younger teenager. Long-term boyfriend I believed I'd probably marry. College? Work? Which to do...no rush...I have this boyfriend who'll support me no matter what, even wants to help me through school.

Sigh...and then...real life kicked in.

What were your best years? The best years of your life, so far?

The best years are those that have yet to come.

Hmm. . . You know I can't really appreciate a year until it's over. While I'm in it, I'll always be completely stressed out and unhappy. But when'it's over, I'll look back and say to myself, "Gee. . . that wasn't that bad. . .".

Junior year in highschool was probably my best year for highschool. We had the most fun with the least amount of stress. We were all putting off our decisions about our futures until senior year.

And then senior year came and it was all work work work.

And now I'm here and I still dont' really know why.

And now reality. . . Hmm. . . It's a sweet and sour world, is it not?

Now brace yourselves, here comes my conclusion:
Good times can't really ever be measured in years. Years are too long a period of time, too much badness to spoil the goodness. You have to measure the goodness in moments, with the realization that yes, that moment will pass eventually. Personally I find that people who expect too much out of their present situation are always disappointed, and people who hold on to one thing too long hold on to it until it expires, and are often left broken hearted. One must live in the present and be realistic about the future.

There's a song whose lyrics are taken straight from the Bible:

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time for every purpose, under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late

And so in closing, I say, let the good times roll, roll, roll on and away.

When I think about it, I never really had any. Just filled with drama that you dont think back and go, "Man, those years were pretty fun despite the things that happened." But I'm not complaining, just the way things turned out.

I like that song quite well. It's both sad and comforting...it's telling you to let go of the things that need letting go of, but accept that other things must happen for a reason. You won't believe it but I've had it tacked on my wall for a long time. It's a goodie.

I really liked your post Morgan, especially the "conclusion" part. You put it very well. I may even print it out and stick it to my wall.

Luz, I understand where you're coming from. Perhaps I should have titled this thread, "The Best Moments of Your Life", because we've all had at least some good moments. You both are right - a year is filled with sucky crap, diluting the good in it. Perhaps I've blocked out the sucky crap from the years I mentioned and now only remember the good.

nah, the best moments make up the years.

It's true...I love that philosophy that you MUST experience negativity, hardship, depression, and bad things, in order to "know" goodness. That philosophy can get rather deep if you let it, too. Like, think about this...if there was never any bad in our lives, and always good, would we really be happy? Because you have to know the opposite of an emotion in order to know you're experiencing its opposite. I think we'd all be walking drones with dopey smiles on our faces, ignorant of trouble and stress, and therefore careless and unappreciative of happiness and good things. We wouldn't truly be happy; we'd merely be content. And there is a difference.

Sweet-P I'm sorry to hear of your childhood being horrendous. I won't ask about it because I'm sure you'd rather not talk about it, but I do want to say that I am proud and amazed that you turned out such a lovely person. Perhaps it is Why you are such a lovely person. I always find it so astonishing and commendable when people have come from bad childhoods and choose to be good people anyway, instead of becoming awful people, out of spite and hatred toward the world. You deserve all the goodness coming your way. And I know that it is.

Haha...I love hearing other people's nice memories. It's really what life is based on, isn't it - memories. They are what keep us going.

"Expanders" - LOL, Sweet-P that's hilarious. Kids are so funny sometimes. I was told that one time, in the middle of a very crowded Pizza Hut, when I was a kid, I loudly announced to my parents that aliens have testicles on their fingertips. LOL...What I really was trying to say was tentacles, but it didn't quite happen. 😛 They were horribly embarrassed, and I had no idea why. 🙂

SimplyMe, I admire very much your positivity. You lived near a field?? I wish I had lived near a field. That sounds lovely, the running around, etc. What kinds of dance did you study? Sadly, I have no siblings, so I have no "sibling memories". But, I don't miss them all that much either, since I've never experienced them.

I used to love visiting my old best friend's house (a Capricorn actually, she was the best friend I've ever had) when I was a kid/teenager because her dad lived way out in the country on acres and acres of...not sure what the right word is..."fieldland"? 😛 And we'd literally make up these elaborate stories and act them out, like one time we were wild amazon women and then once we were Native Americans, and there were these little mini-creeks all around their property with these idyllic little wooden bridges over them, which I found unbelievably fascinating, for some reason...probably because they reminded me of something out of a book. God I loved that property. There was just so much land all around you; you could look out and see nothing but grass and cattle and little wildflowers everywhere. And trees hundreds of years old, everywhere. We were so "free" to do anything we wanted (and having been brought up by strict parents, that was quite the special treat for me, and her, too). Usually how it would happen is that I would go over there in the morning, having been invited to stay over the night. And in the morning, we'd pack huge coolers full of Pepsi and snacks and literally trek all around the property all day long until sundown, just having a ball with nothing but nature all around us. We used to sing together, read together, write together, everything. I do miss her. She moved to New York to go to college and we fell out of contact a few years ago. I think we also grew apart in some ways. She went to a private religious high school, and although my parents almost sent me to the same school, we couldn't really afford it and so in the end, I just went to public high school. I haven't really seen her since probably 1999.

Very interesting about your dance stuff! I'm glad you took it up again. I think you do have to have a certain level of maturity before you can really appreciate the difficulty and meaning of dance. I didn't like dancing at first when I did it, either. You know...I bet I would fare fairly well if I took some classes again, just for fun. Just gotta save up some money for that, though. I loved jazz, and was best at that style . That and ballet-ish things, but I hated ballet-ish (and I say "ish" because I only briefly took a few ballet classes, because they were required for me to be on the team, and also I say "ish" because we only learned the very basic steps and positions)...anyway I disliked doing ballet. I liked jazz and hip-hop, but strangely I'm not really a fan of hip-hop music. BUT, it is fun to dance to. So you're studying the same form of dance again? That's very cool.

And I won't tell your sister...😛