Still Becoming

Every family has them.

The stories that get buried under years of daily life, work schedules, school events, bills, grocery trips, laundry, and everything else that fills our days.

The stories that sit quietly in the background until someone says two simple words:

“Remember when…”

And suddenly everyone is laughing.

This weekend, my husband and I started remembering some of those stories.

Remember when one of the boys adjusted the stereo volume “a hair”?

Remember when another one somehow couldn’t find the garage through the rain?

Remember when a debit card was used in a way the bank definitely never intended?

Remember when a tow truck had to be called because backing down a driveway didn’t go quite as planned?

Remember when a cattle prod and a refrigerator became part of a physics experiment?

The details aren’t really the important part.

What matters is how quickly those moments return. One story leads to another. Everyone remembers a different piece. Someone remembers what happened. Someone else remembers what was said. Before long, an entire memory comes back to life.

It’s funny because when you’re living those moments, they rarely feel like stories.

They’re frustrations.

They’re headaches.

They’re phone calls you don’t want to receive.

They’re moments where you’re trying not to laugh while also trying to decide what punishment fits the crime.

Then years pass.

The children become adults.

The chaos settles down.

And somehow those same moments become the stories everyone tells around the table.

The older I get, the more I realize how important those stories are. Not because they’re dramatic or life-changing, but because they help us remember who we were, who we loved, and how we got here.

So today I’m curious.

What’s your family’s “remember when” story?

The one that gets brought up every holiday.

The one that still makes everyone laugh.

The one where all someone has to say is “Remember when…” and everybody immediately knows exactly what comes next.

I’d love to hear them.