It occurred to me last night, as I watched Jimmy Fallon sing “Walk Of Shame” with Dave Matthews during his primetime special, that I’m glad I experienced some of those not-all-that-fun at the time things during college, like a walk of shame or two.
At the time, I didn’t think sleeping on an air-mattress for 6 months in a crap-hole apartment or living off of Lipton Noodles (that I got for free from my roommate who happened to have some familial ties to the higher ups at Lipton) was all that funny or memory-making.
Valentines Day, 2002 – Be sure I wore that red lacy shirt home from Scott’s the next day, probably paired with a hijacked pair of his sweat pants. Don’t be too jealous of the decor! He builds things for me now, but I’m the one who decides what is and isn’t allowed to decorate our walls.
Truthfully, I couldn’t WAIT to graduate from college (and did so a semester early) just so I could start making money, and feed and clothe myself properly. Yeah, I WANTED to give up that life of little to no obligations for a job and fresh produce. Oh, Jill.
But looking back, I love that I have those stories to tell, those life experiences to appreciate and hold over my kid’s heads.
“Back in MY day I didn’t EVEN HAVE A REAL BED TO SLEEP ON IN COLLEGE, and I lived off sodium, carbs, and VERY CHEAP BEER.”
I got to thinking last night. What are the things we’re living with now that will become the stories we laugh at and hold close to our hearts as badges of honor from this season of life?
Surely we’ll be able to laugh about sleep deprivation someday, assuming we survive it.
Taking small children to restaurants and spending our meal alternating shoving food in our mouths and catching food and utensils the kids are throwing before it hits a neighboring table -that will be HILARIOUS someday, right?
Climbing into bed, only to discover a pacifier, a pile of LEGOs and a half eaten banana will probably be adorable in the future.
When we’re 60, living a quiet life in our clean high-rise condo, are we going to be chuckling over all those times we had to push a load of clean laundry off the couch to sit down, only to eventually have to wash the same load of laundry again?
I try my very best to live in the moment, to take it all in, but when it’s 5:30 p.m. and the toddler is shouting “banananananananananananaNANANA” at me incessantly while the 4-year-old quietly destroys my makeup by mixing it into “magic potions” when he’s SUPPOSED to be pooping in the bathroom, I really just want to click my heels three times and fast forward to bedtime.
I don’t think there’s any way of knowing what I’ll look back on, misty eyed, with endearment. What will end up being my 30’s equivalent of the 20’s walk of shame. I’m just going to assume that anything that involves the kids and causes me extreme embarrassment or costs us large sums of money to fix now is fair game.
What do you think you’ll remember as funny and endearing when you aren’t actually living through it in the future?
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When you said something about the Walk of Shame in the Twitter link, I really did not expect this to be the post that would pop up, lol. Clever take on it. Thanks for sharing.
Love the picture of ya’ll! Babies!
Maybe I’ll miss the sound of the Rainforest bouncer or the swing that play in my brain CONSTANTLY, even when they’re not on?
Maybe I’ll even miss these piles of dog fur that I don’t bother to clean these days b/c I’m tending to small people?
OMG, the dog hair is TAKING OVER MY LIFE.
You look exactly the same (minus haircut)… Scott looks like jailbait, lol.
I hope in 20 years, I can laugh at tr punt of bodily fluids I cleaned up, and the countdown to bedtime, aka, wine thirty.
*the amount
I figure my entire current existence is one big “we’ll laugh at this someday” moment, slowly unfolding as I alternately laugh and cry my way through it.
I had to laugh at the stuff in the background of your picture. The giant printer, computer tower, and stereo. Kids aren’t even going to know what those are in the future. My husband finally threw out his old stereo today and replaced it with small computer speakers. One step at a time. Also, I went to UNC which is where the Jimmy Fallon video was filmed. I saw his Carolina sweatshirt and thought, “HEY, that’s my school!!”
Definitely the time noah drug his “pony” into the bathroom so that he could ride it and make it sing while I was trying to use the bathroom, or how he actually did hit a neighboring table with a piece of bread one time.
My 4 year old while in Whole Foods this afternoon, starts screaming (with tears of course streaming down his face) “you never let me get ANYTHING!” when I said no to buying a box of cookies. That might actually be humorous and not mortifying in 20 years.
Thanks so much for sharing this. Love the video.
I’m already laughing that my (then 13 month old) son put his head through a plate glass window without a single scratch or cut. His favorite thing to do now at 32 months old is to see how hard he can slam his head into hard objects (not intentionally), fall down, get up and yell, “ta dah!” I’ll be happy if we can ever teach this one to read. I mean, there has to be some serious brain damage at this point.