What Will We Wish Was Like it Was Before?

Good morning dear readers. Yesterday I randomly ran into my mom at the grocery store as she was about to leave, which, despite living in a small town, I don’t think has ever happened before.

While she was checking out and scanning her items, she started…complaining. “Why can’t things be the way they used to be?” I asked her if she meant she would rather the cashiers be checking her out instead of having to scan the items herself. She told me yes, that she misses when they would do it instead of her having to do it, which I could tell she was somewhat struggling with.

And I get it. I always scan my own groceries instead of waiting in the two checkout lines they have available, when they used to have dozens before the pandemic. It is somewhat of a pain, but I also like the freedom of checking out at my own pace and bagging everything how I want it. There’s also all the touchscreen prompts you have to follow when checking out now, which can get a little confusing at times.

So again, I get it. When you’re used to something for so long being one way, it does get frustrating when it suddenly changes and you’re left to figure out how to do it differently going forward. And that, I think, was her main complaint (not her thinking she’s above checking herself out).

After our interaction, I couldn’t help but wonder what we will wish would have stayed the same as it was when we were younger. Will it be cell phones? Cars? Voting rights? TV’s or the Internet? So much has been changing at such a rapid pace the last few years that my brain mentally can’t comprehend what life will look like by the time we’re in our 60’s.

I’ve always thought of myself as good with change, but the thought of getting older and longing for the way things were years before seems…scary? Maybe a little sad? I know it’s a very real, human feeling that we all deal with at some point in our lives, no matter how old we are, but at that moment when my mom said that, I felt for her.

Who knows what life will look like in 40 years? What will we wish had stayed the same? If I wanted to go mad, I would ask myself those questions all day. But instead, I’m choosing to focus on the present and enjoy today for what it is.