Getting back into running has me thinking…. a lot.
One of those things I’ve been thinking about lately is nostalgia. I’ll be honest, I’m not a nostalgic person. Most people who look towards things with a nostalgic eye see things not how they truly were but how they wish they had been. I don’t live that way. I see things without the shaded glasses. I see the beauty but the ugliness too.
My oldest friend invited me to like this Facebook group page about the town I grew up in, Burlingame, California. I wasn’t born there, I was born in San Francisco, but I was raised in this little suburb on SF. This page is basically people who grew up in Burlingame, longing for the days of their youth. I would never do that. I’ve had and am having way more fun as an adult that I ever had as a kid. Being a child was hard for me. I was extremely sensitive and not very good socially. I had a very hard time with some of the other kids. My favorite times were spent on my own. Add to that my mother pressuring me to always do better in school, in music….
So, when I read the posts in the group of how wonderful their childhoods were, I shake my head. I know that one of the greatest things that makes my life so wonderful now is running. I get to run! I get to challenge myself! If those are their best days, what are they doing now? What do they have to look forward to in their lives? I have a race this weekend!
I never look back at my life and say those were the best days. Because my best days have yet to come.