Progression, Regression, or Stagnation?

Last Saturday, while home in Washington on my Spring Break, I went the Skagit Vallet Tulip Festival with my parents. My dad posted a blog with all the pictures that he took of the tulips - some great shots!

When we were kids, my family would go see the tulips almost annually. Back then it was free (when we went last weekend it was $4 per person...even tree-hugging North Westerns embrace capitalism) and a great place for a family of squirrelly children. There were character cutouts, carnival food, and best of all, any flowers that we accidentally walked on were not ones that my mom had worked hard to plant and grow. While we did not get an entirely free pass at flattening tulips during a game of tag, we sure did not face the full wrath of a green thumb scorned.

On Saturday, while my mom and I were watching my dad play photographer for the day, my mom made a comment about how she thought the tulip festival had expanded. I responded that I remembered the tulip festival to be bigger, more forest-like. But that could also be due to the fact that the last time I was there I was about three feet tall...

The last documented (meaning pictures in our family albums) time that I was at the tulip festival was when I was 5 years old. As a fresh 22 year old, that means it has been (let me pull out the calculator for this one) 17 years since I frolicked through the tulips (You think I'm kidding about the calculator huh?).

This period of tulip silence got me thinking about how my early tulip experiences differed from my current tulip experience.

As a 5 year old, I was very sensitive to the cold, meaning I cried like a little girl (in my defense, I was a little girl) when I was freezing my backside off. Yet I fought tooth and nail to not wear my ugly pink cat sweater with matching hair bow. I was an astute 5 year old; what if I met a cute 6 year old boy? He would not ask me for my number if he saw me in a hideous sweater...

Well, I am happy to report that as a 22 year old, I have abandoned vanity for reason...actually I just left vanity in California (I mean cute surfer boys don't pick up just anyone...). I willingly put on a turtleneck...for those of you who don't know what this piece of clothing is, it is a shirt that silently strangles you for the sake of keeping your neck warm. If I am dead, why does my neck need to be warm?...a fleece jacket, and a ski jacket shell for rain and wind protection. Then I strapped on boots that I had a history of "forgetting at home" for winter camp in high school, and I trudged out the door. I did make an honest attempt at styling my hair, but then I remembered:

Washington spring weather (it may rain at any given moment) + wind = bad news.

A braid and a bun later, I was ready to meet prince charming at the tulips...I mean, family trip! Yeah!

As we walked around the tulip garden arrangements I saw a circular row of tulips surrounding a bench. I posed the question to my parents :

"Hypothetically, if I tried to hurdle the tulips and missed, would we get kicked out?"
"Yes...plus, you break it, you buy it..." was their answer, with some rolling of the eyes.

A 5 year old would just have taken off...a 22 year old restrains herself, but still contemplates it...As we got nearer to the tulip circle, I discovered that the circle was a bit thicker than I had anticipated, making success unlikely for a 5 or 22 year old.

After saving me from certain bankruptcy for having to pay for the tulips that I would have smashed, my parents walked out of the sculpted garden and toward the tulip fields. I trotted along.

Now these tulip fields are like any other crop field. They are long rows of tulips with enough space between the rows for a person to walk without stepping on a flower. Nevertheless there was a sign with strict instructions to:

"Stay on the path. Do not walk down the tulip rows."

Well thank you Skagit Valley. It didn't occur to me how much fun running through a field of tulips would be until you told me I couldn't.

Granted, some of the 5 year olds that I saw at the tulip fields were leashed to their parents, thus effectively nullifying the potential for any mischief whatsoever. But a free-roaming 5 year old would just take off into the fields ignoring the shriek of their mortified and angry parents. They would not care that a sign was telling them no...most likely because they could not read the sign and could easily claim ignorance of the rule...darn you literacy! You have robbed me of all sorts of fun...

As a 22 year old, I had to settle for scanning the fields to make sure the coast was clear (which it never was) of those pesky tulip police ready to peg you with some sort of tulip tromping trespassing ticket.

After a day of considering myself superior to the 5 year old trouble causers, I found a tulip worthy of being photographed with me...17 years ago, I took a similar picture...

(In case you can't see it, the flower names are "Elite" and "Attila")

(Also note: I do believe I loved this cat sweater even though it did not aid me on the love-at-first-sight category...)

The question I ponder now is:

Have I made progress?

Am I regressing?

Or have I not changed at bit?