My Year Of Everything

My parents were in town over the weekend, and YES, it was great. But the older I get, the more I miss them, to the point where I spend the time we do spend together being sad that we don’t have more time to spend together, and then I think about how much I’m missing in their lives, those wonderful small moments that you can only share when you’re right next to each other, and about my nieces and nephews, whose Christmas pageants and science fairs and lacrosse games I never get to see because I’m out here doing whatever it is I do and trying to become whatever it is I’m trying to become, and I wonder whether what I’m really doing is becoming a smaller and smaller part of my own family, and whether what I’m getting in return is just the chance to stay 22 forever, and then it’s time to see them off to the airport.