Home movies.

While eating lunch this afternoon, I watched old home videos that my mother-in-law uploaded to YouTube. Something gave me pause about seeing her back in time. She was my age, holding a newborn baby in the hospital the same way I have done now three times.  She nursed her baby and held her baby and passed her baby off to be admired by grandma. I was shocked by my mother-in-law's youth.

She was just like me.
Probably all grandmas were just like me at some point. 

In my head, it's easy to know that every grandma was once a new mother just starting out like I am today. It's easy for me to know that every old person was once young. But for some reason seeing that video footage showcasing soundless minutes of day-to-day life was jarring. It made me think ahead to my own future.

Probably my boys will look at old photos of me and laugh at my glasses, my hair, the stupid things I made them wear. Digital storage means that my photos will never turn brittle and yellow but surely they will still be just as dated as if they had. Some day I will take my old hard drives to be converted into whatever future format is best, and I might share them with whatever the future's version of Facebook will be.

My boys will probably have kids of their own and then I will find myself exactly where my mother-in-law is now. My grown kids and grand kids will laugh when I can't figure out the next greatest technology.  They'll gripe about the way I will worry and they'll poke fun at the thirty year old shoes they'll find buried in my closet because I just can't stand to give them away.

All of this sounds like a very obvious course of events, and it is, really. Everybody ages. But this may be the first time I've ever sat down and thought about it. And while I'm sure I'll have many years to change my mind, getting old doesn't really seem so bad to me right now. I will have so many great things to look back on. And maybe, one day, my daughter-in-law will see all of these photos I've posted here and be at once appalled and comforted by seeing that we aren't that different after all.

Outfit that was once Jared's.

Too many blueberries.

Building the campfire.

Making s'mores.

Marshmallow roaster in training.

Marshmallow roasting master.

First time fisherman.

First fish ever caught for Jared.

Expert fishing duo.

First-timer, natural pro.

Bath time. No fishing here.