Well, summer is in full swing at the Fite home. The boys, 10 and 14, each graduated from their schools and one will be starting middle and the other, high school this fall. I had to do a double-take when I received a text message from my oldest’s teacher asking if he had my permission to take driver’s ed (um, no!) but, I of course texted, yes.
We were outside talking about summer with a neighbor last weekend and how they always take a trip each year. I remember growing up thinking when I was a parent, life would be like a National Lampoon’s movie every summer with a new road trip to go on.
But he said something that really stuck with me: “We only have four more summers with our oldest.” Which then made me think, I only have four more summers with mine.
Years ago, I wrote a blog post called The Timeline of a Boy’s Life which is linked below. In it I told the story of my oldest’s first night as a new Cub Scout and a demonstration the scout master had made showing how little time we truly have with our kids. I remember experiencing that night and getting choked up. Then writing about it and getting choked up again. Then the message slowly faded away until I was reminded of it as my wife, Missy, started writing a book of her own, and mentioned the post I wrote.
Now, most of what I wrote back then has come true. As much as I hoped it wouldn’t.
We only have four more summers…
I never became Clark Griswold. We’ve had many trips, to Iowa, to the Blue Ridge mountains, and many staycations, but I never took the kids on a cross-country expedition from the Orlando suburbs to a southern California amusement park, or to the Grand Canyon, or on a European vacation, or even a cruise, but maybe I should.
Now that my eyes are open, and I see how little time we truly have left with the boys, I’m looking forward to being a little more intentional with creating memories while I can.
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I only added about 3,000 words in June to the next Blake Jordan story. Part of the problem of writing a book by the seat of my pants (writing in the dark) vs outlining is that, while the story is better and way more entertaining, it’s also way more likely that I’ll write myself into a corner and get stuck. This has happened before, many times, and I always find my way out, but it takes a while. I should be back on track soon. -Ken
P.S. Here’s the post I mentioned earlier: https://kenfite.com/the-timeline-of-a-boys-life/