This morning at a red light I looked at a girl driving the car next to me. She looked about my age and had really cute hair. These are the things I notice. Then I looked past her face to the graduation tassel hanging from her rearview – 2012.

What?! That’s 2 years ago. She graduated high school as I was graduating from BYU and finishing my first year of teaching.

“I graduated in 2008. That sounds so long ago,” I mused. I remember being kind of embarrassed to say the year I graduated because it sounded so recent – like I was some kind of baby. I guess not anymore. We’re having our 6/belated 5 year high school reunion this year, and that just feels so strange. The Beard is having his 10 year! What an old man. LOL that some of his friends have kids in elementary school already.

Then I got thinking about my kids – or I should say I got BACK to thinking about my kids. That’s what consumes most of my commute these days now that I have a deadline on our time together (31 days!). Funny how that makes me simultaneously relieved/panicked/full of love for them. Anyway. My kids are the class of 2018. Whoa.

Where were my kids when I was graduating high school? 2nd grade.

Did I have any clue – when I was running around Springville, playing softball, throwing water balloons, texting in class and thinking mostly about boys/college – any clue at all that there were 200 little 2nd graders out there that I’d be teaching one day? Of course not.

There’s a good chance I saw the Beard play football when I was in 8th grade. I remember going to an Orem-Springville game and walking around the track, going to watch some girls fight over by the tennis courts… good times. Did I have any idea that the man I would fall in love and spend my eternity with was playing for the other team? Obviously not. I was in love with The Phantom aka Gerard Butler at the time.

Did I have any inkling that the quiet Graphic Design girl who always worked 5 feet from me with her headphones in my entire freshman year would prove to be one of my very best friends for, probably, the rest of my life? Nope. We pretty much ignored each other besides polite conversation. I literally never even thought about the state of Kentucky (where she grew up) my entire life. And look at us now! Texting Office quotes 20x a day and turning to one another in times of need.

What other people are out there? The family who will live across the street from our first home and will change our lives with their goodness? The man who will marry my sister, the girl who will marry my brother? A nurse who will save your life 5 years from now?

I’ve always been preoccupied with this type of thinking. We live in ONE world. All of us. At the same time. The sun rises; the sun sets. Maybe at different times in different zones, but it’s the same sun and the same moon. These kids were out there all along. The Beard was out there all along. My college best friends, roommates, bosses, coworkers… they’ve all been out there.

What other people are out there? We have no way of knowing. I remember a seminary lesson about chastity (stay with me here, I promise it isn’t about to get TOO weird) where our teacher had us close our eyes and think about our future spouse (mine looked like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine… weirdly partially accurate, see below). We were supposed to think about them out there, in the world, living their life. What did we hope they were doing? Going to seminary, reading scriptures, treating the opposite gender with respect, serving their family, doing well in school, etc. What did they hope WE were doing? Probably the same thing.

That really stuck with me. Maybe I only applied it to my future husband, but what if I had known I would be teaching 600 teenagers by the end of the next 6 years? Would I have tried harder in school? Done more of my college studying? Been more active in my wards? Been kinder to people in general?

What other people are out there, right now, today? Other people that might impact your life in the future? What do we hope they are doing right now, for our sake? What do they hope we are doing for theirs?

They probably aren’t hoping I spent 10 hours catching up on Hannibal over Spring Break, but c’est la vie.