Write me up

Jack has not managed to pass the driving test as of yet.
With that, I try and give him some big picture advice, as in don’t be impulsive, wait a few days in order to use a car he’s more comfortable with, various cornerstone gems to help him through this one, and larger challenges he will face.
And then I hear the blahblahblah of my own voice and I either make a joke or just stop talking entirely.
He and I are most certainly at a crossroads. One of which I have been at before, or at least it looks familiar.  But, he has not, it’s all new to him, the freedom the potential. All of the things I once knew but no longer do.
Middle age is hard. No one told me, all I knew about in advance was the hormonal upheaval, not the part where you look back and think about the enormity of all of it, and the sheer speed of the years that have passed. Or maybe someone did, but I was thinking about something else when they were telling me.