The Best Time to Plant an Oak Tree was 25 Years Ago…

…the second best time is now.

I’ve shared this quote more times and with more people than I can remember. But it’s so true. Yeah we shoulda done that important thing way back when. And we coulda done it every day since then. Damn that sucks, doesn’t it? But how we’re currently governed by the laws of relativity, we can’t change any of those moments from the initial one where we shoulda done something to a moment ago. But what we can change is now.

I’ve had this blogpost idea for a while, but as I sit in my house in solitary confinement during Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic it became most relatable topic of popular culture to write about.

I should have gone grocery shopping sooner. I should have been prepared to work from home. I should have brought my books from home before hunkering down with my parents away from home. I should have more shelf-stable foods at home. I should have bought more toilet paper!

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Here and now in the pandemic of 2020, I doubt that I am the only one who looks back on past experiences with today’s perspective and reconsiders the decisions I’ve made. I wish I would have made a concerted effort to travel and explore more when I was younger, but faced with the impending obligations of adulthood it seemed like a better idea to lay the foundation for a solid and successful career.

I wish I would have seen the value in my own self worth earlier in life. I wish I would have pursued romance before laying a foundation in my life and setting roots. There are a multitude of things that we’ve had one shot at. But there are so many things we’ve yet to encounter that could benefit from those “one shot” experiences in our past? There’s still something to be learned from those experiences and applied to our present situation. There are also many more decisions to make in the future.

With lessons learned during the current pandemic, once we recover from it, we should know to prepare for if or when it happens again. Have a few weeks’ worth of food on hand. Make sure all of those battery packs are charged. Build that savings cushion at whatever rate you can do it. Have a pack of toilet paper on hand.

Also, I may have missed a handful of my prime years for finding myself… but I eventually realized it was something I should do. I can travel now. (Well maybe not *right* now.) But I can and have taken some nice trips in recent years. I will continue to take those trips when world conditions allow it. I know that while I have a foundation laid, I am also as agile as I allow myself to be! While I may not have pursued certain priorities years ago, the only thing stopping me from doing that now is me.

So yeah. We should have planted that oak tree 25 years ago. But knowing what we know now, we should plant that tree today. As an oracle once said,

“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”