The End of The Golden Years

I mentioned in a previous blog post that I had two crazy weeks of back to back traveling. The last destination was Boston.

It was a last-minute trip - my closest friends from undergrad and grad school just happened to be in town that one weekend.

In my mind, I was hoping we would go back to the good old days. The golden years have yielded to dusk. The usual plan was after a stressful week in the lab; we'd all meet up for dinner at a new restaurant we haven't tried, then go back to the same friend's spot for some marathon gaming session followed up by a night on the town.

I was hoping it would be like that again.

It wasn't.

Not that was disappointing, but things were different.

I've only left for California come July, so I didn't think things would have changed all too much. In some ways, they did, and other ways things were the same. I arrived at 2 AM on Saturday (perfect timing, I know).

We still meet up like usual - but only for a super short amount of time. Life has taken each one of us down our paths. We're way busier than we used to be with full-time jobs and side hustles we're trying to pursue. Some of us have significant others in the picture, too, limiting our time as well.

We continued with the usual ritual described above by grabbing drinks, followed by dinner. It was great catching up and just being all together in one place again.

Afterward, instead of going out for the evening, we all went to see a movie instead.

We've never done that before.

It was great! Sometimes you have a change up the routine. We saw this new horror thriller that I can't remember...think it was called "Ready Or Not." I thought the lead actress, Samara Weaving, was Margot Robbie at first! They look similar.

The movie was funny and terrifying. I enjoyed it overall. The night ends with us heading back to the usual spot. A late-night conversation ensues. Even more, time passes and sleep starts to take hold on some of us. Goodbyes are said.

I didn't sleep. I hopped on a 5:30 AM flight back to California.

And that was it. The weekend went by like that.

That trip showed me two things - the good old days are gone. That golden era of my life has now closed, and may never be repeated.

But more importantly, it means that the chance for even better days is ahead. I have this secret fear that sometimes, the best moments I'm experiencing right there and then will be the best that it will ever be, and it all goes downhill from there. Or the nostalgia kicks in and I think the present will never be useful as the past.

That weekend signified to me that for the first time, now that I'm truly living on my own, I can create the future I want and make the good times even better.

Sure, a set of golden years has come and gone.

But that means the dawn of a new golden era is in my hands.

Soda