Growing Up

 Wow. Every once in a while you just need to step back and reckon with the passage of time. It just keeps going by without much notice until you take a moment and realize it. The reality of time passing by can be hard to deal with at times. There is so much we have to give up and move on from, whether we want to or not. There are times I still feel like that 12 year old kid coming home from school before my parents get home, watching TV in the living room. Some times I feel like that carefree college kid with so much hope for what's to come. Other times I feel every minute of my 43 year old self, exhausted with the world.

Another hard truth: my son isn't a little kid anymore. I recently took this picture of him and when I looked at it the next day I realized he is already a young man. He's not the little baby I bounced on my knee, he's not the toddler who loved to play on the floor in the living room. He's no longer the little kid who just wants to snuggle on the couch and have his daddy read to him. As I sometimes realize my age, I also realize his. It's bittersweet: I have a sadness that I will never again see that little boy, but a pride and excitement about the man he is about to become. Ah, the elation and devastation of being a father.