Hello 26.

The time in your life where you still feel like you’re 20, but feel a pending remorse for 30.

It’s the time where more responsibility is prevalent.

The possibility or thought of marriage, children, a house, and/or a major career move could be occupying your daily thoughts.

Where your friends have been established to some degree and the frequency in that you see them either stays the same or decreases a bit, but you are able to pick up the conversation from the point you left off at regardless of the time spent away.

You start to notice that yelling at the news on T.V. makes you feel better about any global concern.

When your old injuries and fresh ones make themselves known a little more frequently and take a little longer to go away.

It’s where you look at yourself in the mirror and imagine this is how your body will be for the next 25 years unless you take some initiative to change it, depending on how motivated you feel in the next 3 weeks.

Something that is guaranteed from the aging process is that your ears and nose will be bigger with a sudden appearance of more hair in both. Not to mention the fact that you’ll find your pants start making their way to your armpits.

If you have identified with any of these thoughts, gentle reader, it pleases me to know this because then I am not the only one having them.

I feel consumed by responsibility. It has taken over my daily thoughts. It is planning my next 30 years without any regard to what I have to say.

From going to a care-free environment with nothing to worry about except the next social event and paying off the Mastercard balances from the very same social events, to having a two-bedroom house with a dependant under the roof and 2 jobs that barely cover all expenses.

~Phew. I can’t write like I used to. I need a nap.~

~It’s not all bad though. There is some good. All rested up, this author shall continue.~

An appreciation for all the little things taken for granted begins to blossom.

There is a certain understanding and respect of what the parents used to say as the “right thing to do because we’ve done it.” Now you may either agree or disagree with this statement, but it cannot be denied. How you are told to do something by someone your elder will be taken differently, but no matter the situation, one will be told of the negative side of one’s actions.

Several scenarios have come up where no matter of opinion matters, and many more will, has caught this author pausing for moments finally before finally stuttering out the words…

ah, now I understand...

The appreciation for what you have and will acquire increases. With any responsibility where you have put time and sweat into action, the rewards are enjoyed on a completely different level. Also included in this is leisure time. When you have much on your plate and feel like you are required to be busy, the time you have to do nothing or something you want to for your own pleasure is precious and ought not to be taken for granted.

As I am writing it may seem as though I have just chanced upon this knowledge like a metal detector does on buried keys, but it has come from circumstance. In the time frame of less than a day, the care-free lifestyle is replaced by responsibility.

As my hair continues to gray and my teeth stain from excessive consumption of coffee and cigarettes, I say good-bye to the care-free days and good-day to responsibility laden freedom.

Happy 26^th... Welcome to reality!

Finally, this author has an appreciation. It is you gentle reader. I have received a few emails saying that, even after a year of abstaining from writing, they were checking to see if any new postings were added.

To my faithful, I thank you.