I was on a drive today where I heard songs from three distinct times of my life.
The first was a song I first heard as a 13 year old. It was my favorite song for a time.
The next was a song I heard a lot as a 16/17 year old as part of a CD I’d burned with my favorite songs from that time.
The final one was from my time as an intern at graduate school. I’d hear this song before pulling into work.
Each of these songs brought back memories about my aspirations from the time. As a 13 year old, I’m not sure what my aspirations were. I guess they had something to do with doing well in my next exam.
As a 16/17 year old, I wanted my university dreams to work out.
And as a graduate school intern, I just hoped I’d get an offer to come back.
All of these hopes worked out just fine. This walk down memory lane reminded me of three things.
(1) It is so easy to take our current life for granted. Often, so much of what we have is the stuff of dreams. I think of this a bunch when I listen to a collection of songs from a time when I just hoped my now-wife would date me. :-)
(2) Happiness is reality over expectations. While it shouldn’t be over-done and acknowledging this isn’t a push for a lack of ambition, it helps to keep expectations low.
(3) Very few problems we’re dealing with will feel significant in a decade.
