You know ...

Sometimes it is the separation from the things that we once had, that makes us know their values better ...
Sometimes the fact that one is the only and the only person to take care of himself/herself makes that person for sure be more mature comparing to those who are living with the family...

The point here is, what the signs of this maturity are ... in other words, what are the differences of a person who has become more "seasoned" comparing to his fellows...

The other day I was in my office ... one of the freshman students came to me and wanted to know his grade for the course I was the TA for ... it was very obvious that he is really concerned about the grade of the homework and this was something that has made him very anxious ... I was thinking to myself, how beautiful was the time that my concerns were also like his ... how far it seems to me now ... like a far memory buried in the shadow when I was at the same situation with big concerns about the grade of my homework ...

I was talking to Ali in London, England the other day, he was sharing the same perceptions ... that fortunately/unfortunately our concerns, our worries have grown ... no more is homework a concern ... no more grades a concern (although they have been very successful Thank God) but it is no more a concern ...

Life in a very general meaning of it, has become the concern for us... the challenges, the difficulties, the plans for future, for marriage, for future investments, future business establishments, future jobs ... in a big picture ... and the daily challenges of dealing with many many people in the society every day from mechanic to plumber, from professors to students, from car dealer to home agents, from manager to employees, from bank manager to homeless people asking for help at nights ... all of it ...

Ali Jaan, we have been grown ... willingly or unwillingly ... it is even more growth and experience for us living in another society, with another culture, among other people who not necessarily see the things as we see or not necessarily have the same reactions to different things as we have ...

You know ... living abroad has taught us perfectly to prioritize our concerns and our worries every day at every situation ... it is long time that now that homework grade is one of the last priorities for us ... maybe it is sad, but it is the fact my friend ...

Sometimes, I think with myself that we particularly have been a generation who were born three years after a harsh revolution which changed the whole values and the organizational system of the society ... later on the experience of an exhausting 8-year war ... the memory of the terrible days has made us to think deep and serious about what ... about almost everything ... then the years of greed ... the years of forgetfulness ... the years of terrible inflation, malfunctioning economics and many many more ... then the era of being proud to read as many as "serious" books, knowing as many as "Thinkers" ... following the political news from all around the world ... then leaving the homeland to study abroad and the great experience of living in another society ...

Ali Jaan, we are indeed much older than we are ... I even look much older with my grey hair on my head here and there and with my study glasses on :-) ...

Ali Jaan, this is life ... now, I do respect my father more and more every day and every moment for an absolutely great human he is and for all the amazing experiences he has had ...


***
[Photo: Courtesy of photoblog www.hoomanb.com/pictures
The road between bautiful Kelardasht and the city of Abbas-Abad in Mazandaran, Beautiful Iran]