The Greatest Days

Throughout a person's life, he or she has been told what to do on semi-daily basis as kids, as adults, and even as one reaches the latter days of one's existance. One has to the accept the fact that he or she will encounter people who have either complete or slight authority over each of us. Though we may not like it, one just has to grin and bear it, knowing that on the inside we're holding back what we really want to say to that person. At that point, one's proverbial fuse will be lit, but it's just a matter of cutting off that fuse before it ignites one's internal explosive mechanism that no one wants to set off.

As kids, the two most important people that have complete authority over you, well until you reach the age of 18 or 21, are one's parents. For they have devoted their lives to conitnually preaching to us, but sometimes we tend to not listen or choose not to listen to what they have to say, a tatic that has been done and absolutely perfected by most of us back in the day. In some aspect, each of us were mini-James Deans and considered ourselves rebels but with cause. Let me ask you this question, how far did you stretch the limits of your parent's authority back then and was it well worth in the end?

The adult years will reveal that authority figures such as professors and bosses will be constantly critiquing one's work and how he or she should be doing his or her job. Every college student has been in a situation where you worked hard on a research paper only to get it back and receiving a grade that he or she though it deserved to be higher. It's that way with one's working relationship with one's boss as he or she deserves compensation for the work that his or her boss takes credit for. It's that particular power of authority that can make a person increasingly bitter and not fun to be around.

In the latter days of a person's life he or she obtains wisdom and knowledge in which they are considered authority figures. As it has been said, one should always repsect one's elders because they have the right to say they've been there and done that. It's really amazing what stories one's own grandparents will share if you spending quality time with them. They can create mental picture in one's own mind that is throught provoking and mesmerizing. Undoubtedly, the respect given to one's elder who have gone through tough situations can be taught and passed to the younger generation.

In retrospect, there will always be authority figures looking over our shoulders and telling us what to do and not to do. But it all comes down to a person's attitude and how one carries himself or herself when confronted with authority. Each of us have pushed the limits of authority as a kid, stepping up to authority as an adult, and are or will become an authority figure through life experience as one reaches or has reached his or her latter years. In the end, the greatest days of a person's life is when he or she doesn't focus on authority, but focuses on living each day to the fullest and simply having fun doing it.