Standing Out in the Hall

I have started a new job, as of a few weeks ago. When I walk into the building and head up to my office, I walk through the middle of a preschool (funny how life comes full circle, huh?). Long story short is that there is a preschool housed on the first floor of the building I work.

This creates an interesting environment to walk through on the way to my office. It normally puts me in a pretty good mood as I head upstairs to get busy.

One day this week, I walked through the preschool to head over to our main office. I looked down the hall and saw a young child out in the hall with their teacher. Though I do not know the particular circumstances, it was clear that the youngster had done something they were not supposed to; and the teacher was letting them know about it.

Seeing that situation made me laugh. Then it made me cringe, thinking about the fear of getting in trouble by the teacher when I was that age.

That got me to thinking . . . when we see something like that, as adults, one fairly normal reaction is to think, "Whew, glad that's not me" . . . and then move on. And that's pretty normal, I think. We want to be happy with where we are in life. And looking upon a situation like that and thinking that we are glad we are not that age anymore is one way to cope.

But I think if we are all honest, we are still scared of that. We are still scared of getting in trouble and having the teacher get on to us.

I think some of us, consciously, think about it: we don't want to be reprimanded by bosses, people in authority, etc. I think others, probably somewhat unconsciously, think that we do not get in trouble anymore and that we can do whatever we want. But deep down, we know that's not true. We still act out of a system in which we are simply trying to not get in trouble.

Whether we want to admit it or not, there are rules and boundaries that we all have to deal with and live with. Part of our success (or whatever you want to call it) in life has to do with how deal with these rules and boundaries. Do we revert to our four year-old selves and do whatever we want . . . as long as the teacher doesn't see us. Or do we admit that yes, there are rules, and try to live within them.

I would imagine we are all probably somewhere in between.