Tuesday, May 27, 2008

And -- oh yeah, welcome to the rest of your life

The best laid schemes o’ mice and men
Gang aft agley
- R Burns


Did your life turn out in the manner you anticipated when you graduated from high school?

Neither did mine.

I’m not saying it turned out better, or worse, but it turned out different. Quite different. Truthfully, I’m uncertain how I, a callow 18-year-old, envisioned how I would be going through my days on the planet.

What I conjectured was, I would head off to university. I would meet somebody and fall in love and have rapturous sex with that person, and eventually we would get engaged and married and maybe have 2.5 children and I would be in some profession or other and we would have a lovely home and a nice car and everybody would live happily ever after.

Actually, at my graduation ball I did meet a very special someone who was quite lovely and we were to become steadies for two years and we did all that aforementioned carnal stuff (back in the days when there was a lot of risk involved, but what the hell, we were lucky in that regard.)

Anyway, I did go to university and did get into a few careers, all of which I’ve enjoyed to greater or lesser extents, and I got married in a sort of serial manner (which I hadn’t anticipated), and otherwise have dealt with life with all its ups and downs. Some of the downs have been excruciating and I’m glad I wasn’t forewarned about how nasty is some of the shit that happens to us all. But, some of the ups have been wonderful and blissful and gave me the strength to carry on. Also, and this was confusing at the time, some of the downs were actually thoroughly disguised ups and manifested themselves as such after a passage of time.

Oh, and I didn't have those 2.5 kids. I kind of regret that.

This graduation stuff is manifesting itself mainly because it is so-called ‘grad-week’ in these parts, and kids are on the verge of leaving their cosseted lives. I envy them not. If I had to go through that stuff again, I think I’d take up skydiving without a chute.

If I were ever asked to give a message to a graduating class, I think it might go like this:

"Hey, kids. Expect the unexpected and you’ll never be disappointed. And, girls, keep your knees together if you’re wearing a skirt and drinking in an Italian bar.

"There’s nothing much more you need to know other than it’s grad night and there is absolutely no cure for a hangover other than time and lots of water. The rest is mythology."

Labels:

14 Comments:

Blogger thailandchani said...

I like the last paragraph. :)

Seriously though, I'm probably hopeless but I've never been one to think much about the future. No one taught me this specifically (that I recall) and perhaps it was just the fact that I graduated in the 60s - but I was never goal-directed. Only experiential. Even now, I like to just wake up and say "yes".

10:54 AM  
Blogger Tanya Brown said...

Well said. I'd say much the same thing to anyone who's pregnant and thinks they're going to control what the delivery is like with one of those wretched "birth plans": give it up. Roll with the punches. Enjoy what is.

11:13 AM  
Blogger Dita said...

Ah, but if you'd have had the 2.5, the .5 woulda' missed half of something right?

11:20 AM  
Blogger Jazz said...

My live turned out completely different from what I imagined too. I was not going to have your basic prosaic routine life. Ha. Well...

The only thing I can add is indeed, indeed, "there is absolutely no cure for a hangover other than time and lots of water. The rest is mythology"

12:06 PM  
Blogger Jazz said...

Oh and of course that should have read life. I can't believe the one time I didn't proofread a comment, BANG, typo... I hang my head in shame.

12:07 PM  
Blogger jmb said...

Yes I'm sure many of us took different paths from what we envisaged then.

I would not go back to that time for anything but I would like to wake up tomorrow and be thirty five, with a bit of sense and self confidence at last.

4:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, sure, warn the girls not to have any fun!

4:40 PM  
Blogger kimber said...

When I graduated, I had no idea what I wanted to be. I still don't. But I'm pretty happy with where I am, so there's something to be said for making it all up as you go along. :)

10:25 PM  
Blogger Heidi said...

I'm not happy where I am and I still don't know where/what I want to be..Oh well...

Thanx for the bday wishes.. Hugs xo

6:09 AM  
Blogger laughingwolf said...

lol good advice )

did some of that stuff myself... initially wanted to become a veterinarian, ended up a psych major, hoping to get into parapsychology

then graduated from other programs

unlike you, i do have three children, so all was not lost....

7:54 AM  
Blogger Marianne said...

I like your take on life, Ian. Thanks for this.

3:08 PM  
Blogger Laura Jane Williams said...

Note to self: must keep knees together when wearing skirt. WHY did nobody tell me that?

5:07 PM  
Blogger meggie said...

I think if there is a Great Prankster of the Universe, it has made my life up, as it has gone along!
I still have no idea where I am going, or why.
I feel as if I have mostly 'rolled with the punches' life has dealt- good & bad.
Like you, many of the bad, turned out to have silver linings.

12:45 AM  
Blogger heartinsanfrancisco said...

Blogger ate my first comment to this post but I'll try again.

My life has been quite different from what I anticipated when I was 18 and expected that it would all fall into place perfectly with little planning.

I have never understood what anyone does with a half-child, but I had three whole ones who have provided far more pleasure than I ever gave my own parents.

A good part of life is forgiving ourselves for our own frailties, and the rest is up for grabs.

10:29 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home