This past week, I had the wonderful privilege of returning to my home county in Indiana to speak for our local Economic Development Commission’s annual banquet. This was the 35th anniversary of the founding of the effort to attract new business to our area of southern Indiana. I was the speaker for the event ten years ago, and Executive Director Jim Plump was kind enough to ask me to return.
“Wow,” I either heard or said repeatedly during the evening, “has it really been a decade since the last time I was at this event? Time files!” It wasn’t the title of my speech – but, it certainly was the theme of the night.
In attendance were high school colleagues of mine, former work associates from my days in broadcasting, and many more. We all marveled at how quickly the years have flown by.
After the event, I went to visit family in the northern part of Indiana. As we watched young kids who seemed as newborns only a blink of an eye ago, we commented on the swift passage of time.
However, I remember as a freshman in high school that it seemed as though commencement day was eons away. As a new enrollee at college, I could not wait to graduate and get into the “real world.” When older adults told me at that juncture how rapidly time would pass, I thought, “Sure! Bring it on!”
- Now, however, I understand exactly what they meant.
I’m also reminded of someone I talked about during my speech back in Indiana last week. When I had the opportunity to meet and have dinner with him when I was in my early 20’s, he related the story of his life to me.
He was born in another small town just twenty miles south of my own. When he got his first Social Security check, he decided he was going to start his own business so he wouldn’t be dependent upon the government for the rest of his life. Taking that initial retirement payment, he launched a restaurant…
You don’t think of him has hailing from Henryville, Indiana – but, he did. Harland Sanders named his business Kentucky Fried Chicken, now better known as just KFC.
- Colonel Sanders decided that even though the years up to his 65th had flown by, he could still do something with the ones he had left.
The point is that even though the years may be flying by, we can – regardless of our respective ages – create extraordinary opportunities for ourselves, if we are willing to create distinction in the time that is our present.
