54 Things I Learned in my 54th Year: #50 – I’m Ready to Live Like A Grandma

This past summer a country club pool director position opened up at a club about 35 minutes from my house, and I decided to give it a go.

The club had cleaned out its entire pool staff, and not only was I was able to hand pick my lifeguard staff, but Kristofer and Ingrid were both able to lifeguard at the club also.

It was a pretty sweet set up for us.

The worst part of the job was the commute. It’s 35 minutes if you drive on I-84.

I-84 sucks.

Part of the road is always under construction and there are multiple accidents each week and the traffic is so unpredictable.

My second week at the club one of the members told me how to get there the back way, avoiding the highway.

It added about 12 minutes to the drive, but it was so much more enjoyable than driving on 84.

There was never any traffic, and it’s a beautiful drive.

So from that point on, I drove the back way.

20 or 30 or 40 or even 50-year-old Susie never would have added twelve minutes per trip to the commute.

That’s precious time.

Rush rush rush.

I’m sick of rushing.

It’s stressful and it’s exhausting and it’s just not how I want to live my life anymore.

I want to live my life like a grandparent.

Grandparents know what’s up.

Grandparents have figured out that the mad rush of achievement and cramming as much stuff into your day as humanly possible is futile.

Because there’s no award for cramming the most stuff into your day as humanly possible.

I have a ways to go to achieve Master Chill Grandparent status, but I’ve started my journey.

What I realized this summer is that in our rush to check off bucket list items and pave the way for whatever amazing future we have planned out for ourselves, we are missing some pretty awesome stuff that is happening RIGHT NOW.

We don’t even see what’s around us.

We don’t appreciate where we are because we are so focused on where we want to go.

I’ve missed so much stuff by rushing.

I’ve missed so much stuff by refusing to slow down.

Not anymore.

I just wanted to share a few of the things I got to see on my back road drive to work every day this summer.

These aren’t the best pictures because I took them from the car with my phone, but they get the point across.

I LOVE old houses and old barns and stone walls.

My route to work was full of them.

I drove down beautiful, winding, tree-lined country roads.

I saw lots of cows.

Lots and lots of cows.

So many beautiful historic homes and buildings.

I love the wreath on the front door of this house (and the navy blue front door).

This outbuilding is one of my favorites.

More farms.

This might be my favorite thing to drive past because it’s so random – look inside…

It reminds me of one of my favorite movies…

Can you guess which one?

I miss my back road drives to the club now that summer is over.

But I would have missed ALL of this if I was hell bent on cramming as much stuff as I could into every day and “using” every minute of my time efficiently.

I’m over rushing.

And I’m not in any hurry to be a grandparent.

But I am definitely in a hurry to live like one.