I'm 23 years old and I still have an "A-HA!" or an "ooOOhh!" moment weekly, if not more. All the sudden, even when I'm least expecting it, some small piece of knowledge will fall into place and I'll understand the world--or at least my world as I know it--a little better.
This includes things I never even realized that I didn't understand too. For example, the other day I realized something that literally got me to say "Oh my God!" out loud, to just myself in my car. The office supply store, Staples, has a double meaning. Not only are staples one of the many kinds of office supplies, BUT a "staple" is also something we deem to be necessary, like how a black dress can be a staple of a woman's wardrobe. Mind. Blown.
Looking back at my childhood (even to just as recently as say, last week) I'll share a few of my "A-HA!" moments...
When I was in the 2nd grade, my brother was in 7th. Since 8th graders were at the high school at the time, they were allowed to play on high school sports teams. At the dinner table one night, my brother mentioned that when he got into the 8th grade, he wanted to join the cross country team. Having never heard of the sport before, I thought this meant that you ran across the entire country. I didn't quite take the time to work out the logistics in my head, such as how they would attend school, or the fact that it would be a few thousand miles of running if they actually ran across the country. But, if you know me, you know that I'm quite attached to my brother, so I blurted out, "YOU CAN'T DO CROSS COUNTRY WE'LL NEVER SEE YOU!"
...Now, I may have been dumb enough to think cross country meant a Massachusetts-to-California run, but I was NOT dumb enough to miss the confusion on my family's face.
Almost immediately I realized my mistake and quickly smoothed it over, mumbling something about how practice would be really long. ...Luckily I kept that one a pretty quiet A-HA! (more like a-haaa) moment, and if my family reads this blog this may be the first time they hear that story.
Anytime I watch movies that I used to watch as a kid, I have an A-HA! moment. I didn't understand a freaking thing that went on in any movie I watched as a kid. I saw Beethoven for the first time in maybe, 15 years? a couple months ago on TV. I remembered who the bad guys were, and I remembered specific things that happened--the obnoxious man and woman being dragged through the yard by Beethoven, the little girl falling in the pool, the mean doctor pretending he was attacked...but I didn't have a clue why ANY of that stuff happened. Andd now that I understand Beethoven, one more piece in the puzzle of the world falls into place!
Remember seeing your parents do chores/errands/calculations that seemed so confusing? And you swore you would never understand how to do it? Now, things like driving a car, or paying bills, or remembering how to get to all of your friends' houses, or down the Cape, seem really simple. There may not have been one specific moment where you learned it all, but you figured it out gradually along the way. Maybe you barely even noticed it, but one day you paid your first bill. Or filled out your first tax form.
I think when I was little I assumed that when I became an independent member of society, living away from my parents and on my own, my picture of the world would be crystal clear. That's how I thought all adults saw the world. But now that I'm actually technically an adult and still don't understand things like health insurance or how to check the oil in my car, I'm starting to think that maybe the world will always be a little blurry to me. At least some parts of it. But that's ok, because if everything were clear, I would really miss those A-HA! or a-haaa! moments.
"I always thought that, um, dogs, laid eggs. And I learned something today!"
-Peter Griffin, Family Guy
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