Five years
Five years is a long time. Turns out, five years can also be a crazy short amount of time.
Five years ago today, I quit my job. The plan was to take “six months off” (my so-called “Summer of Johan”) to recharge and in the meantime be the stay-at-home parent for our son. The time off was just supposed to last through that spring and summer and when he went back to school in the fall for first grade, I’d dust off the resume, call in some favors, and get back at it.
Turns out, I just liked being a stay-at-home dad too much. We renewed the “Summer of Johan” for another season. And we kept on renewing it since here I am, five years on, still the stay-at-home dad and still relishing every moment of it.
After our son was born and started into the toddler years, I quickly realized that my sense of time scale was irreparably changed. When previously I would think sometimes a year or two out (“I can’t wait for our fall vacation!” or “What is our business plan for the next two years?”) after having Rowan, I realized that I started thinking in five year chunks, in half-decades.
- “Oh wow, in like five years he’s going to start pre-school/kindergarten!”
- “Oh god, after 2nd grade, we’ll have like five years before he’s a teen and hates us and never wants to hang out with us!”
- “Oh man, after he becomes a teenager, we’ll have at most like five years before he’s off to college!”
Thinking through everything in life in five year chunks like that.
It used to feel like five years was so far out, so long from now, that you didn’t need to worry about it. It would take ages for five years to roll around.
Well, it’s five years later and the time has absolutely flown by. I’ve been so incredibly lucky to have been able to spend so, so, so much time with my son, every single long drive to-and-from school, every special treat after school, every drive to-and-from practices, hearing about his day, listening to him fall into and out of love with BTS and K-pop, being there for when he got something stolen from him at school, when he got into an argument with his best friend, and just generally getting to be there for all the random moments of jokes, singing, talking, and excitement about his life.
We’re soundly in the middle of that second five year chunk so if you excuse me, I’m going to spend some time with my son before he turns 13 and thinks I’m no longer super cool.
