Reminisce Over Me

  Hey, and welcome to another installment of According to T. I'm your host Tsiambwom Akuchu.

You know, there comes a point in everyone's life, I think, that they begin to feel the urge, or to describe it more properly, a pull to leave home.(how cliched is that intro?)

But you know that moment people talk about, you know, when the baby bird finally learns to fly and leaves the nest? This is what I mean. It's the point where you walk into the house you grew up in and feel like a stranger; the point where you visit your old church and find that everybody has moved on. You come home for summer vacation and you're maybe lucky that you have 2 or 3 friends still in town with whom you can hangout with and talk about how things are changing.

I used to think that becoming an adult meant that you metamorphosed into this rational, independent, free thinking being, completely capable of contributing to society. How wrong am I? It seems to me that becoming an adult is not this beautiful transformation, but a cold and unfeeling realization. You don't necessarily change, but the world around you definitely does. Becoming an adult is just how you are expected to react to this change, or rather, how you choose to react. Hopefully within the 18plus years you've been alive you've learned enough about responsibility and how to be a functioning member of the 'real world' that you react the correct way.

So why is this my topic or discussion today?

Well I just so recently just went back home to Atlanta to spend fourth of July with my family. I came home to familiar sights and sounds, delicious smells and a full house. About three years ago, this was the norm.

My family consists of five children and two parents. Seven in total. Now you can imagine how hectic that gets. Well, here is that change I was talking about. The three oldest kids, including me have all graduated and moved off for college; my older sister in Texas, I at Georgia Southern, and my younger brother at Georgia Tech. This means the house has now gone from a bickering seven, to a disagreeing four. Oh how quiet it must be.

When I came back for fourth of July, everyone was there, and it all seem normal. But then I walked into my room, and change hit me. It hit me with a wave of nostalgia and faded memories. Adulthood hit me. I looked around and realized that room hasn't been used in a year or so. It has become a time capsule of my childhood. Every drawer, every cabinet, every upturned pillow, and sprawled over book was a memory from the past. It is a pensive of random memories and friends from highschool past. I spent part of my weekend my room, just reminiscing. As I flipped through yearbooks and old scripts, I came across my brothers memories. It seems the room has become his pensive as well.

On the drive back to my apartment, I couldn't help but think about this, and all I could think was, where have my childhood friends gone, where did everyone I used to know go? And of course, whenever you're thinking about your past, you always have to bring up old regrets and stupid decisions. It's a general rule.

You know, I realize that, every mile I drove further from home, is another mile between my childhood and adolescent self. I guess this is growing up....

Moving on. But you know, change is not so bad...well, at least not when you've had to grow up with it.

Until next time friends.