In a little under 10 hours, we will be well on our way back to Martin, Tenn. for my fraternity's Family Day celebration. The trip is mostly for business, but it is always a good chance to see how the dynamics of an organization change after a few years away. A single year is a lifetime in college, marking a significant step toward the Great Unknown of the so-called "real world." Upon getting into the routine of a 40-hour work week and in bed by 10 p.m., a year does not seem all long away. In another year, I will likely be doing the same kinds of things I do today, just a bit wiser and hopefully with a clearer picture of the road ahead. Your typical fraternity guy (or any college student for that matter) anguishes over each week, the month until midterms seeming like an eternity. There is a bit of perspective rolled in there with your diploma that gradually sets in.
Time. There is so much to do, so little time to go around. In other cases, time is all you have, and the work will be finished when it is (or ever is to be) finished. The clocks of our youth rush ahead faster on some of life's moments, and drag on for others. It is easy to lose a bit of perspective along the way, fighting with the shadows that never leave us, groping about into great unknown. It has been almost three short/long years since Martin, but I can vividly recall much of that time and place better than I can remember what happened last week.
Spring has brought with it a warm sense of new beginnings. There have already been a number of new births in our social circles, a phenomenon that really amplifies that feeling of the new and unlimited potential that it represents. Whether it is the young couple in East Nashville welcoming their first or another welcoming their third, the love they all share is really powerful stuff. Those kinds of moments in life never escape our memory, no matter how many years we put between them and the present.
I have to stop every now and then to really soak in the things around me; my wife's loving smile, the company of friends, a beautiful day. I even look forward to the seven hours we will on the road tomorrow, assuming I do not nap through most of it.