I've got a birthday coming up. Yep, another one. Funny how when you are a child, it seems to take forever for your birthday to come. You can't wait for 4 because then you can start school like the big kids do. Then you wait for 5 so you can go to school every day! Yes! Every day, yippee! Then you wait for 13 because then you will be a teenager, and there's nothing better than being able to say the word "teen" after your number. Then you wait for 15 so you can take your drivers test and terrorize your parents. Then you wait for 18 so you can graduate from high school. Yes! Can't wait to get out of the house! Then you wait for 21 so you can "legally" drink, even though you've probably been doing that since your teens. Then you wait for 22 or 23 so you can graduate from college. You can't wait to be done with going to school every day! But, once you hit 30 then the brakes come on. The birthdays just start flying by! I swear it was just a week ago that I was at the movies and the Rusty with the girls on my birthday. Turns out it was a year ago. How does that happen??? When I hit 35 I decided I wasn't going to celebrate birthdays anymore. I hated adding a number to my age every year. I was always 29 and holding. I didn't want to talk about it. I just didn't like getting older. There were so many things I hadn't done that I thought I would have accomplished by that age. My check list wasn't very checked. Life was flying by too fast. Then last year I took a good look at life. My life. I've had a crazy, happy, sad, disturbing, exciting, wonderful and great life up to this point. I have earned every wrinkle and grey hair. Now the only thing on my check list is to live to be a 100! (With my grandma's genes, I believe I can do it too!) I can work on that check list anytime. This is my new attitude! My life is nothing like the way I planned it, but I've got it pretty darn good. It can only get better from here. Now I am going to welcome each birthday as they come. Not exactly jumping up and down welcoming, but accepting. When someone asks me how old I am, I am going to say I am ONLY 42.
I've got a lot of livin' left to do.
