When I started working on items for this week’s newspaper with a 2016 deadline, I thought to myself another year could not have already come and gone. Christmas decorations were already being boxed up and would soon be packed away in the basement for another year. We were getting everything in the house back in order and my youngest son Jacob was talking about classes he would be taking when he goes back to Auburn.

I walked upstairs another day and was reminded how young my boys were when we moved into the house we now live in. I looked around at their rooms at so many memories of them and their younger days still hanging on the walls and sitting on shelves. The thoughts of how fast they have grown up and are now adults just do not seem possible.

Now, I would not want ours sons to just hang around home and not prepare themselves for their own lives. Both our oldest Jordan, and Jacob have made their mom and I very proud. Both have succeeded well in school, came through the teenage years causing either of us very little grief and my gray hair did not come from anything they did.

We were fortunate, in we only received a phone call from each about a car accident, both were very minor and no one was injured and other than paying for the car repairs, none of us were any worse for the occurrence. Now, I am sure there was things both of them probably did that we might not have approved of, but I am sure I did some things my parents may not have approved of either at their age.

But we are proud of the accomplishments both have made in their lives; Jordan is a clinical pharmacist at Methodist Hospital in Memphis. Jacob will graduate from Auburn with a degree in Civil Engineering in May, and already has a job with Brasfield & Gorrie General Contractors upon his graduation.

Both boys have young ladies in their lives that they seem to care a great deal about. Whether or not both continue with those relationships will be up to them, neither their Mom nor I have ever chosen to try and influence this part of their lives. We do approve of both of these young ladies and have grown very fond of both of them. However, if both relationships continue to the next level, both Lynn and I will support the choices and welcome them into our family.

The words to an old song from Jim Croce came to mind as I was writing this:

“If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I’d save every day like a treasure and then

Again, I would spend them with you”

We can’t slow down time and we can’t go back and relive the past, we can look forward to what the future holds and we will have more memories that we can treasure as time moves on.

Randy Garrison is the president and publisher of the Hartselle Enquirer.