...and then one day you find 10 years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run. You missed the starting gun.
Yeah, that was a hell of a shock, wasn't it? All through grade school and childhood in general, there was someone telling you "Okay, you need to do this now..." and "Hurry up, or you'll be late..." and other stuff. Your parents, teachers, whoever. Get the form signed or you don't get to go, pay the bill on time or they'll cut off you power, whatever. But unless your high school or college graduation came with a nice sit-down talk from a parent or grandparent or someone, no one sat you down and said "Okay, your real life begins now. Get your shit together, get a real job, start getting serious." Or even if they did, you were too young and stupid to listen. And because that never happened, you were somewhere in your 20's or 30's when you looked around and all your friends had real jobs, salaried not hourly, or better cars than you, or had bought their first house while you were still renting shitty apartments and splitting the rent with two other dudes. They were taking their hot wives out to dinner while you were sitting on your ass eating pizza in front of the TV. Wait, was I supposed to be doing something? No one told me!
But eventually you got your shit together. What's the next milestone, retirement? As far as I can tell, that's one of the few officially recognized moments in life to celebrate that you've "made it". Congratufuckinglations. You worked a job for 30 years and have a bunch of money saved up for this moment, and now you're old and many of your body parts no longer function correctly and you're tired and achey all the time so you'll never really enjoy it. But there you go.
In between graduation and retirement, though, at some point, the truly observant might notice that life is actually pretty good. I think that that's what they mean by "stopping to smell the roses".
I work, and sure I'd rather not work, but my job isn't horrible. I've done it for a while now, I'm pretty good at it, and they pay me well. My kids turned out okay; they're not drug addicts or criminals. I don't drive a Tesla or anything, but it's a nice sedan with a good sound system. I can drive for hours and listen to tunes I've loved since junior high, loud and clear, sounding better than ever. My iPod is basically a chip that holds hundreds of my favorite albums, and I can pull up any one of them in seconds. I can take my family out for dinner once in a while just because I feel like it, just because today sucked and I need something good, or because today was good and I feel like celebrating. I get to play rock and roll on weekends, and my band is getting pretty good.
I've always been pretty good about keeping my eyes on the prize. In school, pass these classes, get these grades, and you will graduate. At work, get this done, get that done, and you'll (hopefully) work your way up the ladder. Do this for xx years, and you get to retire. But what about in between?
My point is that just as no one told you when your "real life" started, no one's gonna tell you "by the way, things are pretty good right now." You have to notice that yourself. I'm 55 years old and there's no telling how much longer (or shorter) I have to live, but right now, things are pretty good.
I visited the secret stash recently, and stepped outside the back door to smoke a bit. While I was standing there, it hit me. This is my backyard. It's not huge, and my house is not a mansion, but this is all mine. My shed, my trees, my garden. This is my SUV. I live in a nice neighborhood in the suburbs, with good schools and low crime. I've done it! This is the life. Yeah yeah yeah, only xx more years and I can retire. But right now, this moment, things are pretty damned good.
Take time to smell the roses. Don't be so focused on the next deadline or meeting, or doctor's appointment, or whatever the next short-term goal is, to not notice that years are passing by, they're pretty good in general, and you're missing it.
Enjoy life. You've earned it.