I had to go to the mall with my daughter recently. I noticed that she lagged behind me most of the time as we walked. I figured she had figured out she needed to stay close enough so that I would not worry, but far enough away so that people might not think she was with me.
Typical tween behavior, I assumed. But when I brought it up, she had a completely different answer. “You walk too fast.”
I should have known this answer would come. In fact, she has probably told me the same thing before. I know my wife has. On more than one occasion, she has squeezed my hand and told me to slow down.
I have the same answer I do for most of my problems – blame my family.
Not only am I the youngest in my family, but I’m the mistake baby. I’m five and a half years younger than the closest sibling. The oldest could drive when I was born.
We traveled a lot growing up. That meant a lot of walking. For me, that meant trying to keep up with my traveling companions.
I had always chalked it up to the fact that I was younger than everyone else. I still think that might have played a role, but now I think I just found myself born into a clan of fast walkers.
Even as I grew older, I found myself almost running to keep up with the group at times. Considering my Mom barely broke 5 feet tall, I didn’t have an excuse anymore.
Now I have to consciously make a decision to walk slowly on occasion. If I end up holding the hand of one of the youngest members of my extended family, I have really, really remember not to drag them along beside me as I move along at my normal pace.
My experience as a wrestler also plays a role in this habit, especially when I deal with steps. We had to run steps all the time, especially in college. A lot of times, we would take two steps at a time to make the process go faster.
I now find myself almost incapable of walking up or down steps at a normal pace. I know I have frightened people at work several flights below me as they hear a thundering noise descending toward them.
Because I have lived most of my life as a procrastinator, my walking speed has sometimes come in handy. I didn’t always shave to pick up the pace to arrive on time even if I didn’t leave much room for error.
But I know I need to slow down at times. I have seen the shock on people’s faces when I round a corner sometimes. I don’t mean to look like I’m in a terrible hurry.
I really can’t help it. I just hope I can learn my lesson before I pass it on to my daughter. Maybe it’s a good thing if I’m too embarrassing to walk near.