Aaron Harp

Looking Onward

I typically don’t enjoy the present.  It’s not that I hate it, I just infrequently find it out of the ordinary.  But the curious thing is that I have countless extraordinary memories of the past.  Logic would deduce that non-enjoyable (not necessarily unenjoyable) memories in the present would retain that quality in the past.   It strangely isn’t so.

One year ago, today, I was in Chicago with Sammy visiting our good friend Brandon O’Brien.   It was my 22nd birthday and I wished that it wasn’t.  I don’t usually like to be given extra attention, but I especially didn’t on this particular day.  It was one of those days where the littlest things drive you nuts.  Nonetheless, Sammy and I set out to make something of the day.  We found ourselves at a cold Lake Michigan and Sammy suggested a birthday swim.  I reluctantly got in with the handful of other loonies braving the frigid water.  Not necessarily what I would have chosen to do, but now I can look back on it with fondness.

When something’s supposed to be special, I tend to get too caught up in it being so that I overlook its specialness.   Though I do have tons of wonderful memories that are invitingly summoned to mind, I can’t help but think of how many things I miss or how much greater some of these memories could have been.  This has been added to the list of things that I need to work on.  Good thing I’m still less than a quarter century old.