My Two-Cents: Downhill Slides & Uphill Climbs
If you are going to be on a slide, I think it’s common consensus that you want to be on the downhill portion. The uphill portion is so much work! As a wise prophet once said, “Life’s a Climb, but the View is great.” Actually, I think that might have been Miley Cyrus. But the sentiment still stands, nonetheless. The view/downhill portion is the best part of the climb/slide. Or so I thought. Until I stumbled upon another version of a downhill slide this week: one in reference to time.
Considering all the time I’ve spent at home (in my childhood house, with my family)– I’m on the downhill slide of the curve. I remember seeing a Twitter thread showing these graphs in high school, but the magnitude of concepts doesn’t really hit us until we're in the thick of the idea itself. And finding myself at home this weekend 4+ years after I moved out for the first time, led me to this realization – Holy Shit! My time at home has passed its peak. The little girl who resided on Legacy Street for years will find her way back here from time to time, but she will always be just a visitor. She will walk through its doors and see the entryway in a new lens, one with a subtle tint of nostalgia.
All of these thoughts make me feel overly sentimental for a moment, but then I remember the other side of the token: our time does not become more finite, it just redistributes. I still have the same amount of time in the day, I just use it differently. Our time with our parents and family hits the downhill slide around 18, becoming more and more effervescent as we descend. This slide, at first glance, seems to offer little reason to put up your hands and enjoy the easy ride down. But this ride comes coupled with the fact that our time with family has become more indispensable than ever. Small doses make the systemic effect much more potent. And that loss of time with family is replaced with a new dosage. A new type of family we choose to surround ourselves with – friends, coworkers, partners, children.
Picking these friends becomes even more important as we navigate the downhill slide of family time and climb the uphill trek of independence. I’ve touched on this before in a past post (Pick of the Friends Patch, Circa 2023) but our friends often serve as a reflection of who we are. They are the family we choose. The key is to choose people who are better than us — not smarter, not cooler, but more kind, more generous, and more forgiving. By appreciating what they can teach us and listening to their perspectives, we set ourselves up to be surrounded by the “Pick of the Friends Patch”. And that's what makes the next uphill climb all the more worthwhile!
