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Every Little Thing by April Jeppson 

I got to see my family last weekend. Not just my mom or my dad, but all of them. I have friends that get to see their parents and siblings all the time. Or rather, they all live close enough, that if they wanted to, they could see each other all the time. Being able to, and wanting to, are two completely separate matters.

I digress.

My brother and his family live out on the East Coast. Flying is not cheap and driving requires the use of many vacation days. I’ve done the math, and if I wanted to drive out to where he lives, we’d spend almost an entire week in the car just getting there and back. Add in the actual vacation and that is two weeks. So it’s completely understandable why he’s not back home with his family all of the time.

My 17-year-old nephew is currently 6-foot-4. It was odd to see him tower over my brother and his wife. Seeing how tall his child is was a visual indicator as to how old we’ve become. We were old enough to have children that were taller than we were. Heck, my 13-year-old is as tall as I am. If you ask him, he’ll say he’s taller. However, he’s been saying he’s taller than me for over a year. Must be a right of passage for teenage boys, to be taller than their parents. I may have been equally obsessed with passing my mother’s height, but I don’t recall.

Although our children are growing like weeds, they are still children. It’s off-putting to see someone so grown-up looking and then realize that their mind still has childlike tendencies. My son loves to spend time with me. He hugs me and wants to recap the movie that we just watched. He gets sad if he had a rough day at school, and gets equally excited when I bring him out for ice cream.

Again, I’ve gotten off topic.

So I was able to spend time with my family this past weekend. Having the four of us in the same house occasionally gave me flashbacks. Thinking about how we all had to share the one bathroom. Or when that Aerosmith song would come on and my brother and I would take turns singing the chorus. There were moments when I felt like I was 12 again. Then my nephew would walk into the room and instantly I was transported back into modern day.

Getting older is weird. You look older and you are older but that doesn’t stop your mind from occasionally feeling young again. And why should your mind get older? If you want to sing wildly loud to your favorite song, go for it. If you want to get excited about ordering ice cream, do it. I’ve found that my favorite people don’t always act their age. So I’m guessing, there will always be times when I feel 12 again, and I’m going to do my best to act like it. 

Albert Lean April Jeppson is a wife, mom, coach and encourager of dreams. Her column appears every Saturday.