On Lake Xuanwu and This Crazy New Feeling

Earlier, I had one of those moments. The kind when you're going about doing something extraordinarily ordinary, but then you pause and think, but wait, when did we become such grown-ups? Since when did we learn to behave, or at the very least pretend to behave, like adults?

My parents at the entrance of Lake Xuanwu;

my dad forever acting his age (not).

These moments come every now and then, like in class when we're going through the obligatory introductions, and suddenly it's become so natural to say "Hi, I'm Caroline, I'm from Houston, and I'm a junior this year." It seems like just a moment ago, I was saying the exact same thing - but in high school and with a mouth full of braces. Time's a sneaky one, isn't she?

Trinkets? Yes, please!

Just now, Cassandra and Kylie and I drove to the bookstore to grab some textbooks. On the way back, the sky was at that stage where it's a dusty blue tinged with a bit of fiery orange and hazy purple, and the music in the car was loud - you know, all the things that tend to make the mood on the side of nostalgic. And we were talking about jobs and meetings and work, and then all of a sudden, it just hit me how normal this was. How being adults has become so ordinary and simple, and how the heck did we get here so quickly?*

Bananas, I tell you. It's all bananas.

Let's backtrack for a second, though. Right after our visit to the Confucius Temple a couple of weeks ago, my parents and cousin and I decided to hit up Lake Xuanwu - another must of a tourist hot spot in Nanjing. But to our family, it's slightly more than just a check on the famous attractions list. You see, my parents grew up together. They met when they were itty bitty monsters and lived in the same neighborhood, a neighborhood that's only about a stone's skip away from this lake.

Get them reminiscing about the old days, and you'll hear all about how they, along with their brothers and sisters, used to pile into a boat by the train station on one side of the lake, and ride it all the way to the several islands on the lake. 

They used to skip school (so hey parents, get off my case about going to morning classes, geez), and spend their days swimming in the lake, fishing for crawfish and crabs, climbing trees, and finding animals to terrorize. They tell us about the pranks they pulled, the laughter they shared, and all the grand times they had around this lake.

My mom and cousin;

we rented a boat, because on the lake was the breeziest place in the city on that day.

My dad always says that there are lots of "secret spots" on several of these islands that belong to him and my mom, from way back in their courtship days. (Vomit.) Plus, most of the {few} pictures I have of either of them in their childhood were all taken by this lake - there's one of my dad when he was a toddler, with his parents. There's a few of my mom with her sisters, all in pigtails and barefoot. There's a couple of them, with their gang of troublemakers friends and siblings, all of them grown and with their own trouble-making tots and grand-tots now. 

So yes, I guess you can say that this lake - its water, its lily pads, its bridges, its statues and weathered trees and the pavement beneath the feet of thousands of tourists - holds a great deal of history for my family. And I bet you, when my parents walk through it every few years, they get that same sense that I got today. That feeling of, how did the time pass by so quickly? How did we get here so fast? It's an outrageous moment that leaves you feeling like you got punched in the gut, but it's necessary in the way that it makes you stop drop and roll the stressing and the responsibility and all the gosh-darn thought that comes with being an adult, and it lets you just re-live the carefree past for a few seconds and it lets you be grateful for everything that we're given, all the experiences we've had.

To pile on even more sap, we visited their childhood neighborhood after we left the lake, but alas, that's a story for another day. {As in the next day that I feel like blogging - how do you people balance blogging with a life?}

Trees full of memories, and some wishes too.

Well, it looks like I was quite the Chatty Caroline today, so I'll go ahead and apologize for the lengthiness. Blame it all on the nostalgia. It's a talkative one.

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*Also, I was so gung-ho about being an adult and all... and then I just spent a good forty minutes trying to figure out how to work the printer, and raced to the dining hall to beat everyone to the free Swedish Fish. And I completely flipped out when I saw a horse today. So I guess there's still a lot to work on before I'm fully an adult. Thankfully.