The Day I Realized I Couldn’t Beat Time
Today would’ve been my grandma’s 76th birthday. Sadly, she’s been dead for ten years. Cancer. Ugh. I hate the very word. And while no one should lose their grandma at 17, let alone a parent, people do every day. That’s life.
Luckily, I had a great time with my grandma while she was here. She taught me a lot. I guess all of the people closest to us can, if only we pay attention.
Grandma was born in East Germany even before East Germany became a thing and she embodied that mindset down to the clichés.
She was very frugal, downright cheap at times, but it kept the household and my grandpa’s architecture firm together. Except when it came to making gifts, where too much was never enough and she always gave freely.
First and foremost, however, my grandma was a comic. She was kinda clumsy, so she’d always get herself into some mess and then laugh at it from the bottom of her heart. One time she backed right into a stall at the farmer’s market, sending fruits and veggies all over the place. She’d often drop things and laugh at everything that happened whenever we played board games.
She dipped literally all foods into her coffee, from cake to cookies to ham sandwiches. Nothing was safe. She also had the sweatiest feet anyone’s ever seen and she laughed at that too. I can’t think of anyone who lived more by that famous quote:
“Life is too important to be taken seriously.” ― Oscar Wilde
Laughing at life is the thing my grandma taught me that’s most worth remembering. But there’s another big lesson I wouldn’t have wanted to miss:
None of us can beat time.
The Deal With Age
I remember the school yard whispers: “Did you hear? David’s together with Lisa now. She’s a senior. A senior!” I know it makes sense for a 3-year age difference to feel outrageous when those three years are 21% of your whole life, but does it ever, really? I’ve always gotten along better with older people, but I also have friends who are seven years younger that I still love talking to.
I’ve had girls laugh at me for asking them out based on nothing but the fact that they were five years older…
