Things I Can't Say

Tips and Tales from an Introverted Mom

In the Span of a License

Since graduating high school….

Since graduating college…

Since going naturally *cough, cough* blonde….

We use various points along our lives’ timelines to talk about everything that has changed since then.

While I was sitting in the DMV recently, I was knocked over by the thought of how much had changed since I’d last sat there.

NC licenses are good for eight years.

So, the last time I sat there:

I had been married for less than a year and a half.

Now? We’re trying to plan a fun trip for our upcoming 10 year anniversary.

I had my first baby bump, due in a few months.

Now? I’m the proud mama of three boys: 4, 6, and nearly 8.

So much has happened, so much has changed.

All in the lifespan of a driver’s license.

But what really blew me away was thinking that the next time I would need to go in to renew my license? I could bring my oldest along with me to get his learner’s permit.

Yes, time really does fly by.

Have you ever had a thought like this? Share your “I can’t believe how fast time is flying” moment in the comments.

Comments

  1. I was in New York, married just shy of 6 months, only 4 1/2 years ago. 
    And suddenly here I am, with two boys. 
    And oh, my baby is 5 months old. Wait, what?

  2. But what really blew me away was thinking that the next time I would need to go in to renew my license? I could bring my oldest along with me to get his learner’s permit.

    Oh man! You had to say that. I try not to think about my boys driving.

  4. I keep realizing moments like that throughout this pregnancy.  SO much has changed in the five years since I was pregnant before.  I go for my glucose tolerance test tomorrow.  It’s no longer a one hour test, followed by a 3 hour if you fail the one hour.  Now it’s just a 2 hour test and it’s pass or fail.  If I fail, I have gestational diabetes.  No second chances.

    • Yikes! Hope it goes well.

      Though I have heard there were so many bad readings with the one hour that they needed to change it.

  6. Mine was when UK finally won the NCAA basketball championship this past year. The last time that happened was my senior year in high school. I remember thinking about how much had changed!!

    • Ha. I had to sit and wait for quite a while and my phone didn’t have a good connection, so nothing else to do!

  9. That is crazy to think about! Here in SC, we only have to get licenses renewed every 10 years, so mine isn’t due again until 2016!

    When I got my license, I was newly separated, single mom of 2, no job, no direction to go in… kind of lost, still stuck in “but this isn’t how my life was supposed to be” mode.

    By 2016, I will have been re-married for 6 years. I have given birth and lost a child, and will hopefully have given birth to another child by then. My oldest will be 15 years old, old enough to get her learner’s permit. My middle girl will be a freshman in high school. That’s wild… hard to imagine.

  10. Time…I never realized how fast it goes once you have kids. Everyday I have one of those moments. Watering the plants (when I remember, anyway), I realize that one was given to us when my 9 year old was born. I look at the engagement photo on the wall, the one we had everyone at our wedding sign and realize that many of the people who shared that day with us are no longer alive. I realize that our wedding was 11 years ago and my flower girl is all grown up, beautiful and living with the love of her life. Indeed…time flies.

    • It really does fly right by. Everyone says it will happen, but then certain moments make me realize just how right “they” are.

  12. We always thought time flew by so much faster once we had kids. 
    When we moved into a previous home, our girls were in high school, and the oldest was learning to drive. We declared that particular home the “house we would die in” because we never wanted to move again.  In the intervening ten years, we have moved three times, will move again when our house goes up for sale this spring, and have had one daughter get married. 

    • Oh, the times we’ve moved… ugh. I’d like to one day get into our home that we’ll stay in forever.

      • May you have much better luck than we have with that, Shell. 🙂
        On the bright side, we have lived in some interesting places and done interesting things, and we have learned to let go of our too tight grip on stuff. All of that certainly counts towards the positive!

  14. I recently moved to a new state (almost year years ago) , so had to get a new license then.   Even in that short amount of time so much has changed.   At that time I had one child.  Now I have two crazy little boys and am expecting a third! I also have quit my job and my husband has switched jobs as well.  We have lost a few close family friends unexpectedly too.  So much can change in a moment. 

  16. I have those moments all the time. And , if we had an 8 year renewal in NJ,  I’d be bringing my oldest for her permit when you take yours.  Wow!  That hurts! 

  17. Last week my youngest brought home the paper work from school about Grandparent’s Day. Last year mom was alive and he begged her to go with the words “memaw you may never get to come to it again” . Who knew he would be right??

  19. We were talking about when our youngest would be turning 18. That is 16 years from now… our oldest will be 44! That’s almost as old as I am now!
    Sandy

  20. Time moving so fast hit me this year when school started. I realized that I haven’t taught in four years and that this was my last year with my oldest at home without full time school. That one hit me really hard.

  21. Yep. I had to get a new license when we moved and it occurred to me that at the time of the last one i was pregnant with #1 and now there we were having survived so much, moved, etc. Never would have thought!

  24. I just got my stuff in the mail to renew my license. In NJ, it’s every four years, however they let you use your photo again, which I did last time. The difference between the way I really look and think I look from 8 years is scaring me! 

  25. I’m dumbfounded by the perspective. I’ve used event markers to explore such changes in life but mine haven’t gone so far back as the driver’s license. I think ours are good for 10 years here. I honestly can’t remember. 😀 I found myself on the same thought train just last week when attending Lil Duck’s well child check up for the year.

    Amazing how much changes….even in the span of 24 hours.

  28. We recently had to take the boy to the dentist and it meant we wouldn’t be home when the girl got home from school. She’s 12 and old enough to let herself in and be at home alone. She also has her own phone and texted me when she got home. We texted back and forth a bit, me being motherly and asking about homework and whatnot. When we were done I sat in the dentist’s waiting room thinking about how odd it is to be texting with my DAUGHTER. How is she old enough for such things?

  29. When my sons got married – one 4 yrs. ago, one last year – those were the biggest moments of….wow, time has flown. As their wedding, I cried b/c they were so tall and manly, and they used to be my little babies. I know when they become fathers, I’ll have the same feeling.!

  30. We tried for years to have our second daughter, Rhys. When I look at her now and she’s a 4 year old going on bossy old lady, I’m regularly blown away by how quickly four years has passed. We just had our 10 year anniversary in June! I hope you plan something fabulous!

  31. That last fact is freaky!  My oldest just turned 8- we have been married for 11 years, so less than our married life and he will be off to college!  That freaks me out.

  32. Eight years go I was living in Southern Calirfornia -momma to a 3 and 1 year old. I’d recently celebrated my daughters 1st birthday, gone to the East Coast for my grandma’s funeral and had an emergency appendectomy. I was running a licensed child care home with 4 other children 3 and under.

    Since then I have lived in two different states, worked 3 different jobs, and had another baby. My kids are now 11, 9 and 5.

  34. I started blogging a few months after my daughter was born and now she is going to be two! I can’t believe how fast she is growing and all of the great blogging moms I have met along the way too. 🙂

  35. I had to renew mine in August and I was so happy to have my picture retaken. I was sleep deprived from nursing and Bean’s heart issues. I looked like death in my older photo.

  36. Oh my goodness, we get our license renewed every four years! I can’t even imagine what things will be like the next time I renew mine! lol In two years my oldest son will be getting his permit and my youngest son will be in middle school. My oldest daughter will have graduated from graduate school and my 2nd daughter will have graduated from college. I’m so depressed now…thank you Shell! lol

  37. I’m in denial about my boys ever learning to drive. My AZ license doesn’t expire until my 65th birthday. Imagine how much I will live by the time I have to go in to renew it!