Age and Haste

For the past four days, 96 unsupervised hours were spent in Baguio engaging in rebellious schoolboy behavior. No, not the naughty kind. Just generally mischievous.

One thing work does is hasten maturity. From laid back, I-don’t-give-a-crap college life, you’re suddenly forced to take charge and be responsible for a change. The past four days may have just undone six months of forging under fire.

Call it Peter Pan Syndrome, but there’s something to be feared about growing up and something to be gained from immaturity. It’s not age, it’s anxiety. And from youth, recklessness.

Back then, we could fearlessly take on the world, caring little about all the details that could get us there. Caution, that comes with the wealth of experience, can pop the biggest balloons, sometimes even the wrong ones.

Indeed too much of either can also prove dangerous. So the challenge lies in finding the balance. That is one thing, of course, that always evades solution; a question that reckless youth beg not to answer.

They say you can tell a man by the company he keeps. That would probably say I’m a brat who doesn’t want to grow up. Either that or I’ve got a serious split personality problem. All of which would likely explain the fickle tug between growing up and staying young.

When driving, you should always keep your eyes on the road. But then you’d miss all the scenery passing by. We took a little back road coming down, one that passed through rice paddies and a sleepy little neighborhood. In the open was a pond, shaded by a lone tree, the setting sun, peeking through its leaves. We stopped for a while to take pictures as the rest of the manila-bound convoy drove by. I was hesitant to stop, eager to go ahead, make good time and get to the destination early.

You can rush ahead all your life for a long rest at the end, missing out on the little breaks along the way. How you choose to rest is up to you. I’ll tell you one thing. It was a nine hour drive, but I haven’t batted an eyelash the whole trip. The little breaks can get you through a long trip. You lose time, but you get there safely; with some time to unpack and settle in comfortably.