You guys have no idea...

I am a 33-year old woman. Most of my friends are 1) getting married 2) having babies or 3) thinking about how much they want to find/figure out if they're with the right guy so they can get married and have babies. We think about it a lot. We talk about it a lot. I don't blame us--it's a biological imperative, and it's hard to fight biology.

I need to point something out to you guys that will one day become painfully apparent. There is a HUGE difference between deciding you want to have babies, and deciding you want to have children. You picture yourself with a cute, squishy bundle of joy or chasing a toddler on the playground or watching your 8-year-old's ballet recital. What you don't picture--what you don't allow yourself to picture for very long--is the next part. The part from 12 to 18 (or 22 or whatever). It's the part where you are no longer the center of their universe--where they care SO much less about what you think & they become one giant ball of ego. Suddenly, THEY are the center of the universe. Their opinions not only count, but are completely infallible. Their friends/girlfriends/boyfriends are the only things that truly matter.

We've all been there. We've all experienced it from our own perspectives--completely clouded in our memories by our own overgrown sense of self-importance, while simultaneously being ridiculously awkward. Having no idea what the f you're doing, yet being completely convinced that you are right about everything seem like mutually exclusive ideas, no? But there you have it--adolescence. Seeing someone you love experience it is WORSE than going through it yourself. SO MUCH WORSE. Because you know there's something on the other side--that it won't always be this hard to figure stuff out. It hurts to watch this process even more than it hurts to go through it. I guarantee these are not the kinds of thoughts my friends have when considering procreation. Well, maybe now you're thinking about it. We all know it gets better eventually. I mean, we all made it through & look how great we are now ;-)

This is not meant to bum anyone out--it's just reality. Enjoy every moment you possibly can of your life. As a single person. As a dating person. As a married person. As the parent of a young child. Bask in it because that will help you get through the hard times. Soak it in. Don't get so caught up worrying about the things you have to do that you forget to revel in the life you've been blessed with. You have love from your friends, family, nature, music, LIFE. This is what we don't really understand at 16. It's what we are only just starting to comprehend at 33.