Why We Become Grumpy

Humor, honesty, and the parts most people leave out.

Hold up. What did I just hear?

It’s after school pickup time, the music is playing in my SUV, and my kids are in the backseat talking. They’ve totally forgot that I can hear them or they could care less.

They’re joking around and having a fun conversation about how life plays out from their point of view.

First you’re a kid in grade school, then middle school, then high school, and then college. And the punchline:

After all of that, you become a grumpy person who’s on the computer all the time.

They laugh way too hard and I start laughing too. But then their words hit me across the face and kinda hurt.

Were they talking about me? Maybe (and if so I’ll make the necessary adjustments). But what they were definitely talking about were grown ups. All of us. The adults they see every day with their heads down, staring at a laptop or a phone, a little distracted and a little short with everybody.

Is that really what we become?

Truth be told, I am writing this on my computer so maybe. And real talk, from my point of view kids are the best journalists on the planet. They don’t editorialize, they just report what they see.

To be fair, I don’t think any of us sign up to be grumpy. It sneaks up on us while we’re busy following the treadmill society carved out for us that we gladly stepped on.

Then all the bills, responsibilities, and emails show up nonstop. And not helping things, who would have thought we’d all be walking around with a phone in our pocket that’s a full on computer connected to the world?

Recently I told you my real story about losing 25 pounds. The divorce, the apartment, a whole new season of life I’m entering. So it’s definitely possible that I’m a little sensitive right now to anybody describing how life is supposed to go. Even a couple of kids in the backseat who share my DNA.

I’ve said this on a lot of stages over the years.

You don’t miss the old days, what you miss is the old you.

The version of you that had opinions and would stand for something. That person who had big dreams and aspirations who stayed up late talking about what you were going to build and the adventures you would take.

That person who wouldn’t compromise on what they wanted. That person who was gonna go for it and take life up on what it has to offer. That person who didn’t need a calendar invite to get excited about something.

This is one of the main reasons why older generations always have problems with younger generations. It’s not their music, how they talk, or how they dress. It’s that they remind us of who we used to be before we got grumpy and moved onto the computer full time.

After parking the car, the kids and I talked about this whole idea of “you become a grumpy person who’s on the computer all the time.”

I told them, maybe even tried to convince them, that their life gets to be whatever they choose it to be. That they get to pursue whatever they want to pursue. That they don’t have to be grumpy people on a computer when they get older. That they have options and choices.

While I was pleading my case like a lawyer doing his closing argument in a courtroom to jurors, at some point I realized I was also talking to myself.

We’re all on the same path but what happens between here and there is something we have a say in. I didn’t tell the twins this but I was reminded that no one owes us anything, but we owe ourselves everything.

I recently heard someone on a podcast say a rocket pointed down can’t do much. But point that same rocket up and it can go to the moon. It’s the same rocket with the same fuel but the only thing that changes is the direction.

Tony

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PS: What’s something you used to be that you’ve stopped being? Hit reply and tell me.

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