Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

Do you think the world is a better place, compared to 10 years ago?

For me, my world is a better place now than it was 10 years ago, just by virtue of the fact that kid 2 was born 10 years ago this July. But looking at the rest of the world outside of my living room, I have to reconsider… 

There was no MAGA movement

But if you were to ask me, is the world is a better place now than it was 10 years ago? I would also say no. Right off the top of my head, because 10 years ago right now, we didn’t have Donald Trump as president of the United States yet. I would have to look back, but he might not have even announced his candidacy at this time, 10 years ago.

I can’t with that guy. I just can’t. During his first term, I was almost obsessed with CNN. I was posting stuff to Facebook every day; every idiotic thing he did. But now, with all the proverbial guard-rails off, I can’t do it again for another four years.

And it’s not that I don’t care. I do. I guess what I’m trying to say is I need to not react to every stupid comment, every mean tweet that he puts out into the world. I felt like after a while I was “crying wolf” every time he said something asinine. For my own peace of mind, I just can’t do that to myself again. He is an engine of chaos. He likes to have three plates spinning at the same time so that people are paying attention to them; just so youcan do something else underneath everybody’s noses.

Putting my life back together

Of course, 10 years ago I was also still with X2. Whether that was a better time, or worse time, I couldn’t really tell you now. Obviously, I love kid 2, and I wouldn’t change him for anything in the world. But sometimes… I feel like I spent too much time with the wrong partner, again.

10 years ago, I was in the process of getting my career back on track . I was back in the classroom, doing not only what I love, but what I feel like I was put on this earth to do. It wasn’t easy. I was still “taking my lumps“ at the time. Every day was a new learning experience in a new school district. then everybody can, or wants to be a teacher. And even within my profession, many of my peers would not have worked in the inner city schools are where I worked. I was truly proud of myself, and I still am.

A much more stable world

In 2015, Russia was not at war with Ukraine. Israel was not blasting Gaza back into the Stone Age – but things in the Middle East have always been…tense – to put it mildly. Now it seems like the “very stable genius“ is moving America toward an isolationist period. The security of the world as much, much less stable than it was 10 years ago.

I look around at the world at the world that both my boys are set to inherit, and I feel like my generation has failed them both. We’re going to the process of getting kid to set for college this fall school is more expensive than ever, and lenders are giving out less money for financial aid than they did in my day. I’m grateful that kid one is done as well in school as he has, and even earned some scholarships for this fall. But I wear that I love enough. Right now, I can’t even wrap my head around the idea of kid to going to college. He still seven years away from that, but one thing I’ve learned as a parent is that time goes by incredibly fast.

I try not to dwell too much upon it. Because I know that if I do, I will get overwhelmed with it all. At this point, I just refuse to torture myself too much with it My mental state is one where if I get overwhelmed, I will just shut down. I’m not in any position that I can do that right now.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts

• Of Training Wheels and Christmas Lights
• Charity Starts at Home (And I’m Back in My Childhood One)
• The Muscle of Empathy
• Where Do We Go From Here? Five Years Since January 6.
• Bugs, Boundaries, and the Art of Not Being Invisible

The article “2015 versus 2025“ first appeared on Rebuilding Rob