Day 329
I'm noticing this more and more lately, and I'm not saying it goes hand in hand with turning 40, but man! As you get older, you'll see what I mean. You just learn at some point that if you don't lower your expectations for people, you'll literally drive yourself insane.
Case in point: younger friends and family members. If someone's 25 or under, I simply can't expect to have the same relationship with them as I would with someone older. They care more about their phone than me (not even a joke), they have schoolwork and friends that have nothing to do with me and my life, and there are a hundred other life concerns that will always keep them from replying to my messages, or even just reaching out to say hi.
I finally get what all the "old people" in my life always seemed to be bitching and complaining about over the years. You never write. You never visit. You never call. I'm there now--already! I see it happening, and I start to get upset about it, but then I do it: I lower my expectations. I sigh, and I let it go. He has his own life and she has her own friends. I can't expect them to make this friendship or relationship any stronger than it is right now, because they just are their age and I am mine. Though I see them as part of my world, they clearly do not see me as part of their world. It's just the way it is.
Parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and just all other people out there over 30, have you seen this happen in your own lives? Do these words resonate with you as well? If so, join me in letting it go. Join me here and now in releasing all expectations for conversations that will never happen, or last 10 minutes longer than you know it will. Young people are in a different head space, and that's simply all there is to it. So pull up a chair, and talk to me instead. I'm all ears. We can have each other. What is it you want to talk about? Oh, wait, hang on a second...let me just text her back first.
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