TheBanyanTree: When I was a young thing

[NancyIee at aol.com]

When I was a young thing, I worried about important matters, such as: will he 
ask me to the prom, will I remember my bike lock combination, or my school 
locker combination, what is that noise plock-plock-plock, that developed in the 
family car when I was finally allowed to use it, why did my best friend in the 
whole world go to the movies with other kids and not ask me?  My hair was all 
wrong, I was last picked for the softball team, that cute guy didn't even 
acknowledge the note I passed him in class that got me scolded and humiliated by 
the teacher.  Heady stuff.  I went to the prom, but with my cousin, who didn't 
have a date, either.  Yuck.  Our mothers made us go.

Now, I worry about stuff not even in my imagination back then:  what will the 
doctor's tests reveal, how can I help all those in New Orleans, my cart of 
groceries seems so inadequate, why am I not wise enough to avoid making bad 
decisions, how can I turn back time and do a couple of things  differently, how 
can I learn, in the final quarter of the game, when to  speak up and when to 
shut up, how can I find the means to consol the inconsolable,  how can I make it 
up to those I've hurt?

No wonder people always want to go back to their youth.  Things were so much 
simpler then.  I'd much rather worry about who was going to ask me to the 
prom.  Now, I'd just go alone and dance. I'd even just go with my cousin. He was a 
good dancer.  Maybe our mothers knew best, after all.