August 12, 2009

Long after the thrill ...

Point of view provides perspective.


Doesn't it seem like life is a blur when you're having fun?

Everyone sees things from a different viewpoint. When you're a kid in 1977 at Cedar Point, the Giant Slide could have been the best thing going. Twenty years later, the best ride might be Raptor. In another 10 or so years, the new ride, Maverick, might be the best ride ever ... to the kids who go to Cedar Point with you. It might be too jerky, bumpy, and rough for you though.

The amusement park scenario is an analogy. Things change as we get older. I suppose that's called growing up. Jimmy Buffett once sang a song where he said he's "growing older, not up." Life experiences help us as we grow. We learn things. We figure out what works.


The Happy Frier at Cedar Point makes incredible fries. INCREDIBLE. Eventually, though, you'll watch somebody eat a couple of pounds of fries and say, "Don't you know that's not all that good for you?"

We become who we are based on our friends, our experiences, our jobs ... Maybe throughout your 20s, you read Rolling Stone cover to cover when it arrived on Wednesday, but in your 30s, you read magazines like Fast Company and Inc. Perspective changes your interests.

Life is a series of chapters in our own, individual novels. I remember in the early '90s, when life was filled with the drama of roommates and their significant others, girlfriends, and the stress of living in the dormitory. It seemed like that's all life would ever be and it would never change; we would be stuck with the monotony of college life. Then, suddenly, your roommate(s) move out and move on, you break up with your girlfriend (before she can do it to you), and ... Suddenly, you graduate from college. You look for a job ... Chapters. Stories. Snippets.

A lot had changed at Cedar Point from the time I visited in '85 at age 13 to when I returned in '98 at age 26. At 36, the park seemed strangely different. One day was enough. And the slides back in '77 ... they're gone now. Replaced. By something ... better?

1 comment:

Carl and Sally said...

Life changes! Many more ahead of you Rick!