back in the day...

i have one experience, one timeframe in my mind, that i knew i would look back on more fondly than i thought of it when i was going through it. there is one drive i took that i knew i would remember for the rest of my life...actually two i think, but one for sure, i thought "i'll be telling my kids about this one." I was just thinking about another time of my life, one that seemed like i was always hoping for a better situation, that was soon to come, any day now, just around the corner....but it never came. and then there was that warm night in Phoenix, a phone call, an end, just like that. Quiet, final, unpredicted, but there it was. I just caught myself thinking about that time and saying in my mind "it was good." then i thought, "was it good? why do i think that? i seem to remember it being a constant struggle." why is it that we look back on things and think more fondly of them now than we did then? truly, not all things are like this, some in my life were actually worse than i thought they were at the time, but hey, i am still here. Memory, perspective, other experiences...they warp, change, adjust your view of what has happened in your past. i think the message, for me at least, is to look at everything and try to enjoy it as much as possible when it is happening, so when you look back on it you will realize that you did enjoy it as much as you should have. it is better to enjoy something when you are doing it than to look back on it and realize it was more enjoyable than you thought, and that you could have had more fun....oh well, the bad memories have not been forgotten, they have just been pulled from that filed and placed in "lessons learned" while the good memories remain in that original folder.