The daily prompt asks – If you could relive one year of your life, which one would it be?
Sitting here, I was surprised that a year or two or more didn’t immediately pop to mind. I started recounting years and years which was leading to some frustration. Not because I didn’t recount good times but because they also came with some difficult ones as well.
Guessing there is no perfect year. So let me refine my search.
I guess it would be my 12th-13th year of life. Things were still in turmoil, my father had passed just a few years earlier, family finances were at rock bottom, I was already working part-time gigs.
Man was landing on the moon and an influential music festival – Woodstock – caught my attention. The world seemed in turmoil with Vietnam raging and civil rights fights taking place with massive political unrest and kids getting shot on campus not by some nut but our government.
I remember finding peace and solace in music and sports. And I immersed myself in those when I wasn’t in school or working. If I wasn’t on the basketball court or baseball field, I would in my room with the headphones on. It was an awakening year in many ways.
While there was chaos all around, I was at peace humming tunes from the Beatles or CSN back and forth to the courts or fields. Or in my room swinging a bat with The Who Live at Leeds on the headphones.
It’s the first year after my dad passed that I remember my mom thinking we were going to be okay. I could see it because if my memory is right that is the year she changed jobs from a bad one to a good one.
Picking up my dad’s old camera and taking some pictures became an interest that year.
A year without professional career responsibilities. A year without loves heartaches or raising a family pressure. A year with great health and abilities. A time when learning came easily.
A year that fun returned.
