This is a guest blog post by Marcia from Tumbled Words.
We have been preparing for one thing or another most of our lives, haven’t we? Let’s take a trip back into our past in preparation for my one question quiz in honor of Damien and Sarah both being teachers. (No cheating!)
Flash back to elementary school. We were taught to prepare for the next lesson. Sometimes we prepared merely by closing our book, putting away our pencils, and opening our eyes and ears.
Most of us learned to prepare for that next lesson on our own, eventually.
Now mosey on back to middle school (or junior high as my generation referred to it). We were taught to prepare for the next test by studying, and we did, but in our own way. We were preparing to grow up. Our preparation for tests varied: alone, in front of TV, in solitude, or with radio blaring; others studied with friends (in between making out or stuffing our faces with junk food); and those other two groups studied on the school bus as who knows what flew past their heads or they sat quietly at the kitchen table beneath mother’s watchful eye.
Yes, most of us managed to prepare for our upcoming tests — when we wanted to.
High school came and went too fast for some and interminably slow for others. We continued to prepare for tests, sometimes changing our method month to month. But we also learned to prepare for other things: meeting that hunky guy or hot girl, getting out of going to work, our weekend, avoiding our parent’s questions, avoiding our kid brothers and sisters.
Yes, we were quite successful at preparing - just not always for the task that should have been at hand.
College years snuck past some of us as just more of the same, but there, when we were paying attention, we prepared for our careers before they leaped out to ensnare us.
And so on.
You are prepared, right? Now, please, answer the following in one or two sentences:
With all that practice at preparing for things, why have so many of us failed to prepare for marriage or old age?
Just a question I needed to ask….
(Thank you Damien, for providing a wonderful venue for my question.)
Hi. I'm Damien Riley, MA.
12 Comments
Thanks Marcia for your wonderful post. I think what it tells me is that I should prepare for these things in my life because inevitably they are going to come. Another question is “How do you prepare?” Perhaps you could assist us all with that ;)
Hi Marcia!
Great question and it’s one I’ve wondered about many times. I think we are almost programmed through life to believe that success, and therefore happiness, comes from good grades, good schools, with the ultimate goal leading to a good paying job that often defines us.
We ask kids what they want to be when they grow up and they always answer with a career. It’s almost like they are programmed to do so.
I think people realize far too late sometimes what is really important in life. Yes, it’s important to have a job and earn money because you need to live and eat, but there is no way money is going to make one content or happy. I think sometimes it takes years to “unlearn” this from school.
Jessica The Rock Chis last blog post..Why Won’t The World Stop
This is a great question for us to ask ourselves. I really wish “Relationships 101″ and “How to Stay Out of Debt” would have been taught to us in school! Though I’m sure when I was younger I would have ignored it all anyway!
Chelles last blog post..Take a Romantic Road Trip
That may be true, but at least we would have heard it! That’s why I like your blog Chelle, it gives practical advice on the love front.
Damien, Chelle, Jessica: thank y’all for commenting on my post. Education is important, but then so is our paying attention.
I took courses like Trigonometry and Calculus in high school. I dropped out of calculus to take child development (because I felt the teacher unworthy of our attention, rebellion, partially; but he was not a great teacher.) I wish I had taken business math instead. I do think a lot of the reason we aren’t prepared is because we ignore the reality - or we just think we can roll with the punches, but then one day we are tired of rolling and wished we had prepared for retirement or even marriage as hard as we had for that big date.
Marcias last blog post..Life Colors, Age Ascended
I wish someone would have told me to relax and enjoy the ride more! Even now at my age I struggle with that! That helps marriage and old age I think. Thanks again for an awesome guestblog.
For marriage prep, I think that most young people or unmarried people have an unrealistic view on the commitment because of the media. It’s hard to fully prepare for marriage when you have the movie world bombarding you with unrealistic images of what you should expect, how you should respond etc.
It’s impossible to prepare fully for anything though, until you’ve actually experienced it.
Great post!!
Katelyns last blog post..Consignment Attempts
katelyn wrote: “It’s impossible to prepare fully for anything though, until you’ve actually experienced it.”
I had until age 32 to prepare for marriage and my wife and I still encounter new challenges every day, so you are correct in saying that. It definitely helps me in my marriage though having those years to wonder and prepare for it.
Marcia, we don’t prepare for old age, because when we are young we think we are immortal. As for marriage? Hmmm. Maybe we should all have to take a college course in it before we can get married. Still, I don’t think ANYTHING prepares you for the reality of living with another human being and learning to cooperate and communicate. Great post.
This Eclectic Lifes last blog post..Aww, Delbert, Say It Ain’t So
A human being is like a universe and when they collide the gravity and stuff, well it collides. Anyhow, when you both find the same rhytmn it works but both suns are always wanting power so the work is ongoing.
Ok that was bohemian but it made sense to me.
Katelyn, Shelly: I agree it is impossible to completely prepare for anything like living with another human being completely and media certainly doesn’t tend to help it.
And, yes, most did think themselves immortal younger — but, just a thought — did we still think ourselves immortal in our 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s?
Damien, Bohemian works for me, great analogy!
Marcias last blog post..On Dust and Kryptonite - 3WW
yes, it’s weird when you think how much useless stuff we learn at school and university - and so little about the MOST important things in life. and there are so many examples of that. for example, people work for 4 years on their bachelors degree in art - and never learn about how to sell their art. what’s up with that?
isabella moris last blog post..early on a wednesday morning. wordless.
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