Adapt (Five Minute Friday)

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It is Friday again! You know what that means, right? Ok, yeah I guess the title kind of gave it away. It means Kate Motaung gives us a word prompt and we write whatever comes to mind about that word for 5 minutes. It seems I usually can’t stop writing after just five minutes, but today I am going to try. The word today is ADAPT.

START

I began to think of all the ways I have had to adapt during my lifetime. First, it was becoming a big sister instead of the youngest. I don’t remember the first time this happened when my little brother was born because I was only a year and a half old. When my baby sister came along three years after that, I remember looking into the crib and wondering to myself if she would grow up to be someone I liked and got along with. A strange thought, but I must have recently come to the realization that I didn’t like everyone and some were easier than others to get along with.

Then it is going off to school for the first time. Each year the school year would end and we would have to adapt to a new routine for the summer until that too was over and it was time to adapt yet again.

Then from elementary school where we were in one classroom most of the time with the same kids and same teacher to middle school (junior high in my day) where we changed classes, classmates and teachers every time you turned around.

Middle school kind of prepared us for high school, but not nearly enough. High school was harder to adapt to, at least for me. There were three floors of classroom and so many more classes, some of which we got to choose for ourselves.

Then college. Oh, my! What a difference there was between high school where your teachers knew you and expected things from you and college where they didn’t know or care what you did or who you were.

A couple of years into college, I got married. Another huge adjustment. The house we tried to buy before our wedding was pulled off the market while we were on our honeymoon, so we had to start the looking process over again. It was decided, that after the wedding, we would live with my new in-laws until we found another house to buy and moved into it. So, we moved into a different bedroom than the one hubby had been using and adapted to sleep in a double bed together instead of the twin beds we had grown used to our entire lives. It was also a completely new family and household I was forced to adapt to and only postponed the inevitable change of adapting to being co-owners of our own home and living with just one other person for the first time in my life.

STOP

At some point during my college years, I had to make the change from just employee or just student to both at the same time. After we were married I changed colleges and had to commute over an hour each way just to get to school. I never did quite adapt to the whole commuting thing and after a year decided to hold off on finishing my degree. We adapted to me working and hubby doing both school and work and eventually decided to try to start a family. That was another adaptation for us because it didn’t just happen like we thought and hoped it would, but that is a story for another time. Once we finally did get pregnant, my body was forced to adapt to the new life growing within and all the changes that entailed.

We had to adapt yet again when the first baby arrived and then again, even more, when the second one was born. That only multiplied the new opportunities to adapt!

With each new stage of babyhood for each kid, there were chances to adapt. Then the first one went off to school. By the time the second one was in school, I was back in college myself and hubby was still plugging along working full-time and taking a course or two each semester. Eventually hubby and I each finally finished our four-year college degrees (yes, it took way more than four years for both of us). The kids progressed through school leaving the elementary and moving on to middle and then high school. With each new thing in our lives, like kids having jobs and extra-curricular activities aplenty, we had to adapt both individually and as a family.

The big changes came when each kid graduated and went off to college. This was not something either hubby or I knew about as we both lived at home with our families while going to school. Dorm rooms to fit all the things they would need to survive away from home and family. The kids had to adapt to life with multiple roommates and we got to experience being empty nesters if only temporarily.

Now we are in a new phase of life and once again have the chance to adapt this time to being empty nesters for real. This is something we are fully embracing now that we have gotten used to the idea that we had no say in the last kid’s choice to move out. We are adapting by reclaiming our home one room at a time. It will be a long process but much progress has already been made, so stay tuned for before and after pics and progress reports along the way.

I guess adapting is something we all get used to because we do it so many times throughout our lives. How have you had to adapt? Please feel free to share with us in the comments below.

Ok, well guess I couldn’t keep it to 5 minutes this week either. Thanks for reading this far! Maybe next week, right?

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up!
The prompt this week is: Adapt
The assignment: Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write.

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