Glory Days

In a fit of cleaning I came across my high school yearbook.  Of course I had to take a minute to flip through the pages, looking at the pictures and reading the comments written by friends.

“Stay cool!”, “I’ve enjoyed getting to know you”, “Looking forward to all the parties you are going to throw at college”.   Just reading the comments and seeing our crazy hair-do’s made me smile.

Those were good times; much easier than now when we have mortgages and kids and a million other responsibilities.

They say you can never go back.  In many ways that’s true.  Try as I might, I can’t turn back the hands of time.   Of course I technically can and do go back.  I live near my high school, and each year I make several trips to my college town for football games and board meetings.

But that’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about living in the past, fixated on those moments that can most accurately be claimed as “glory days”. 

Lucky for me, the only reason I would want to go backwards is to revel in my ultra-skinny high school self or to truly appreciate my beautiful black hair, before I met Miss Clairol.  And to figure out why someone thought I was “cool” when I thought I was a semi-nerd.

Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed high school, and college made a huge impact on my life. Thanks to social media I am connected with many of my friends from so long ago.  But I don’t live there anymore, and that’s good.  No regrets.

I know people who live back there, in the past, trying to relive the “glory days”.  Instead of focusing on what they can do now, they seem to go back to the days of football games, homecoming, proms and parties in an attempt to live at what they think was the pinnacle of life.

Maybe it was a great time.  Yet I don’t want to be so focused on the past that I miss the present.

Glory days happen in the business world too.  I had the opportunity to work at a great company full of smart, passionate, engaging people.  We worked hard and played hard.  Business could be tough, but we were a team, united to achieve our goal.

Times changed, business changed and layoffs happened.  Our team clung together as long as we could but in the end we found different employment and we have all moved on to new experiences.

Every once in a while I’ll read a comment on social media about the “good times” and I start reminiscing too much as the song “Glory Days” rocks in my head.   Even though I know I’m looking at the past through rose-colored glasses, I can feel myself wishing to be back there for just a few minutes.

Yes, those were great times that we had.  In some ways I wish we could get them back.  On the other hand, most of us have moved on and are doing well.  While I miss the people, I know I’m in a good place and am happy with the new opportunities that have come my way.

We can’t go back.  Even if we could, it wouldn’t be good for us.  But I sure wish I could fit into my high-school sized jeans.