Season Of Life

2026-08-25

I watch this niche youtube channel which is about board games. But the relevant thing is that they introduced me to the phrase, ‘season of life’. Each of the creators have young kids and they frequently mention it because it is harder to play board games while also trying to have a career and also raise young kids.

And I feel this has really helped met think about my own life and the life of my kids. I really wanted to be the kind of parent that did adventurous things. Going on long hikes with kids, traveling to exotic international places, focusing on my career, while also raising young children. That was kind of my dream in my 20s. I am good at doing hard things, I could do that (was something I thought).

But I am wrong. Now that I am in it I want to do stuff that everyone else has done. I want to raise my kids with ease, I want to drive somewhere and go camping or to the beach or to an amusement park. We moved to the suburbs and out of San Francisco, a city I still love, we bought a mini van just recently. I feel these are all pretty typical and were good tradeoffs for us. I may not advance my career as much as I did in the past, I may not push as hard at work.

And so I think of myself more in just a different season of life, a season that is temporary (as all seasons are). In my 20s I worked a lot, traveled a lot, I played a lot of video games and stayed up late. In my late 30s I stay at home with kids a lot, I spend more time in the back yard.

Also it helps me think about my kids’ season of life as well, like they are little oak tree saplings (the metaphor is breaking down). They need a lot of care and love, sunlight, etc. They can’t take too much stress or chaos at this stage. They need a mild climate with sun and rain but not too much of either.

So I will try to enjoy the season of life I am in and enjoy it and not to compare too much with previous seasons or future seasons. They are all a bit different and are all temporary.

-Gary