Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side

Yesterday while participating in a work related activity, myself and the others involved were chatting about our long weekends, bike rides we're going to take, etc. Small talk. We talked about cabins and lakes, and I revealed I was excited to finally go for a cabin weekend in a couple weeks. I told them a bit about my San Francisco trip. As the one admitted he bought his family an above ground pool because they must stay home all summer and paint the house, he looked to me and admitted, "Man, I wish I had your life."

I'm like, wha???? Laughing in an inside knowledge laugh that says I have inside secrets (I have an inkling he didn't pick up on the complexity of my laugh), I responded,

 

"Well, I'm single, so I have no one to answer to. I can do whatever I want." 

The two of them retreated wistfully to their pasts, wandering back to a time they had no family or significant others to cramp their style. I think I saw a hippie bonfire like played in the movie "Dazed and Confused" in one man's flashback.

Isn't it funny though? How a brief meeting with me, the select conversation, they can conclude I have a life they'd like to swap? I'm guessing with a trial period, they'd go back to what they have. Pretty sure of that. I don't even have Tivo. Any commitment can make us feel strangled from time to time- but without that wistful thinking and the exuberation of breaking free, the freedom isn't necessarily the high one envisions. 

Now, this certainly doesn't make me wish I was painting a house all summer, but I'm just saying...