Those Were the Days

So I’m on a college campus last night for my daughter’s step show.

They won, by the way.

Man, did it bring back memories. The Commons, the Greek flags … not a whole lot of things change on college campuses. Walking around on campus seeing all these young people with so much hope and expectation in their eyes gave me a good feeling. I can’t really explain it. My daughter and her friends were just so excited to even be in the presence of the students. Hoping one day that it will one day be them.

The room where the step show took place was filled with students and of course, us parents looked ridiculously out of place. But I didn’t care. I used to feel old being around young people. Last night I didn’t feel “old”. I felt “wise”. Not in a, “I’m so much smarter than you” kind of way. But I was admiring them for enjoying their lives. They were having so much fun. There was no foul language and no inappropriate behavior that I could see. Just young people being young people.

In between performances the speakers would blast music and everyone would get up and they’d be doing their thing. I had to literally hold on to my chair so I wouldn’t get up and join them. There was a Dougie contest and I wanted to get on stage so someone could Teach Me How to Dougie (teach me, teach me how to Dougie). My daughter would have been mortified so I sat in my seat and just smiled.

I said all that to say this: seeing our kids in college and not out acting a fool made me smile. It gave me hope.