I recently went to the supermarket to pick up the following items:
1. Breast milk storage bags
2. Beer
3. Cheese
4. Sanitary napkins
Now, I’ll bet that most guys reading this are glaring at that last one (or even the first one) and saying, “No way, man…my wife can buy that stuff herself…no way I’m walking up to the register with those things.” My wife actually offers to make a separate trip to the store to spare me from having to buy them. But here’s the freaky part: I really don’t care. I have absolutely no awkward feelings about being seen in a store buying feminine hygiene products.
I’d bet that, even into my late 20’s, I would have cringed at a girlfriend saying, “Would you mind picking me up some pads?” I don’t know when this change occurred. Maybe it just came naturally after a few years of marriage (no longer being concerned with trying to impress other women or portray masculinity to other men in public encounters), or if being a parent of a toddler and newborn twins nudged it along (especially when going out on errands; I’m usually just too damned tired to care what people think). In a brief moment of clarity, I recognized a personal growth, a change in my personality…all while standing on line holding a box of maxi-pads.
I stopped myself and thought, “When the hell did that happen?” (WTHDTH?---I’m hoping to have now coined a new LMAO or WTF type abbreviation.) A moment of WTHDTH is when you realize a personal change that happened so subtly that you can only observe it after the fact.
Another moment like this occurred while driving when I noticed that I always come to a complete stop at signs and red lights. I’ve always been a pretty good driver (in twenty years of driving, I can count my total accidents and moving violations on one hand). But who among us hasn’t done the “California stop” at some (if not all) intersections? Who hasn’t raced up to a light that just turned red to make a right turn (without the expected full stop first)? I know that I can’t prevent any and all traffic accidents, but I don’t want to have any regrets about what I could have done but didn’t behind the wheel when I’m responsible for the safe transport of my wife and daughters.
Most of my other examples of WTHDTH moments revolve around my daughter. She comes out with new sentences or expressions every other day it seems---leading me to wonder when the hell she started doing that. This is, I believe, where the concept becomes universal. Every parent can relate to thinking, “When did my child start doing that?” And therein lies the message: whether you acknowledge the change in your own personality (hopefully, a change resembling growth) or in your child’s, these moments are worth fully absorbing.
A quote from the late John Hughes (through the voice of Ferris Bueller) brings appropriate closure to this lesson. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
