All the World's a Stage

Ok. I'm taking a brief break from a blog about the Olympics and swimming...ish.

Other than the Olympics, a conversation theme that has come up this week stemmed from a discussion about stages of life. Everyone, it seems, to be discontent with their current stage of life. They express either anticipating the next stage ahead (as if these stages are progressive...but that's another blog) or reminiscing about the good times they had experienced in the stage they had left behind.

The paradox of the life experience...looking ahead while appreciating the past, all the the while, not letting the present past them by.

My current experience is one of slight jealousy and sadness. I see so many of my friends progressing to the next stage "ahead," and for those who have children, a few stages ahead of me. I often feel left behind; that everyone gets to move on because they have passed some magical "test" of some sort while I have yet to take the first exam.

I often wonder if something is wrong with me.

Now, I don't actually believe that there is something wrong with me or that there is a test to pass. I don't believe that the next stage is a reward for conquering the present stage. But I do feel left behind and that I am, somehow, missing out on something great.

Maybe on the world stage, I'm not meant to play a romantic lead, or even the sidekick with the sub-plot relationship.

I suppose it is always a struggle for us to find satisfaction in the stage we're in. And like humilty, (which, I'm finding is a metaphor for most things) once I realize I have it, it's gone; when I'm satisfied with this stage, I'm no longer in that stage.

In the end, I just don't want to be left behind, and I am not exactly sure if I am the one who can fix it.

Ok...Olympic sidenote: Phelps, Lochte and Peirsol all swim tonight. Its going to be exciting races for all three of them. Watch out for Lochte...he's amazing! Maybe his drive to climb out of the shadows of Phelps and Peirsol will be enough to give him gold. I suppose I relate to him somehow. Never underestimate the underdog.