On Our Way To Crazy

Remember how when you were a kid, your parents were YOUR PARENTS, and that was it? And then, as you got older and became an adult, you started to see them as people – real adults with lives and worlds that are totally separate from you? It’s kind of a world-shaking moment.

Tonight I experienced something really similar, but in reverse. Now that I’ve been at the church for a few years, and working with this group of kids even longer, the kids I know are starting to grow up. Tonight I had dinner with a girl who I met when she was a freshman in high school. She graduated in May and we haven’t been able to see a lot of each other over the past several months.

I’ve always known her as a kid. A mature, responsible kid, sure, but still. A kid. But tonight? I had dinner with an adult. She moved out on her own and has done a lot of growing up. Over chips and salsa and creamy jalapeno dip and some kind of enchilada thing that included a fried egg (the first time Chuy’s has disappointed me, and the last time I take a waiter’s recommendation) and the best sweet tea in town, we talked relationships and movies and roommates and bills and english papers. And not in a leader-youth kind of way. In a friend kind of way.

I don’t know that you are ever truly peers with your parents. Or with former students. But it’s really interesting to watch that transition start to happen. To watch the playing field level a bit.

I feel lucky every day to have the job I do, even on the hard days. There are a lot of really cool benefits. But this was one I wasn’t expecting. So today, I am thankful.