I was on the phone with my dearest friend the other night and we began an interesting conversation about where we would be in 9 years. Screw the whole cookie cutter “5 years” which you constantly hear when you are starting out in life and asked in every single job interview. When you are our age, 51, you have to look at the even bigger picture because you’re old and your children are no longer young and in 9 years you are going to be 60.
When you are over 51 (When you are 50 you are thinking “that’s ok, 50 is good,” then all of the sudden you are 51 and you’re screaming: “I’m OVER 50!”) This is when your brain starts doing and thinking things you haven’t thought of in over half a century. It’s the mindset of course, you are over 50, so what have you….accomplished? Really, is that what it comes down to? Accomplishment is something you’ve done right, if I’m not mistaken. Which means that you should only look at those things in the last half century of your life that were perfect? If I only had the lessons that life gave me that were based on things that went well, I would have learned very little indeed. One of my greatest life lessons is knowing that my fails, falls and almost accomplishments have made me the person I am today, and will continue to shape who I am.
It is my vision to write this blog every nine days. I will be writing for the purpose of sharing our journey as we approach 60. This should prove to be interesting, as she has two sons, one that is possibly going into the Coast Guard at 20 years old and one that is still figuring out his path at 22. I have a 14 year old daughter that lives with me and is my payback. I don’t say that in a bad way, it’s just my Karma for being a pretty challenging kid. I also have a 23 year old son who cooks for a living in the city, and is so much smarter than I will ever be, its scary. Let’s not even get started that Channy and I are both divorced and I just broke up with my current boyfriend who is moving out in a month. And, that is just the tip of the proverbial ice berg of our lives.
Together, we do have some things to figure out, life challenges to meet head on and who knows what else. It promises to be a bumpy road with lots of switchbacks and precarious bumps. The good part about the next 9 years is that Channy and I will be together through it all, as we have been for the past 2 decades. We will support one another, give each other painful truths, cry on each other’s shoulder and most importantly laugh at it all and move on. Though sometimes, the crying and the laughter get all intermingled, because sometimes when you are crying the hardest, you just have to laugh.