Racing against time
Today I realized I'm old. Of course, I've known it for some time, I just hated to admit it. But when notification of my 50th high school reunion popped into my email, I kind of freaked. 50 years? How could it be that long ago that I was roaming the halls of my beloved school? How could that much time have passed since I've seen so many of my oldest and dearest friends?
I used to laugh when I heard my mother in law talking about her 50th high school reunion. At that time, I thought, "Wow! She's really old!" Instead, I should have been thinking, "How wonderful to have lived long enough to attend such a milestone event." I was very naive back then.
Our school has changed so much over the past 50 years. I've driven by several times since 1975 and have made a mental note of each visible change. In some ways, it looks the same, but in others it doesn't. The demographics of that area have drastically changed since I was a student there. Back then, not many of my friends or I had our own cars, now the lot is filled with all sorts of vehicles, and not cheap, beat up ones like the ones my friends were able to afford (if they bought them on their own). Some of my friends had well to do parents who graciously gifted them cars. I was so jealous, especially of the ones with a 1965 Mustang. I wanted that car so badly! Those were the days.
I'm feeling my age, for sure. Today I was up and down off a ladder as I repaired some settling cracks in our new home. We've been here almost a year and the tiny cracks have started to appear. They're not difficult to repair. I've taken care of them in the past 4 homes I've lived in so I know exactly what to do, but today...getting up and down off the ladder was much harder that it was in the past. And when I got through with the job, I had to sit down and rest a while. I was "plumb tuckered out."
It seems like I'm racing against time now. Every day seems to go by so quickly! I get up early each day and accomplish as many things as I can, but the minutes and hours fly. By the time I get ready for bed, I wonder when time sped up. It never used to go by so quickly.
I'm doing everything I can to stay fit. In fact, just yesterday, I bought an new inversion table. Upon our last move, I made the silly mistake of giving mine away thinking I wouldn't want it any longer, but I was wrong. I've missed it terribly. Hanging upside down stretches out my aching spine and seems to help with pain. Only now I have to tilt back slower than I used to because if I don't, I'll get super dizzy and start to feel light headed. I guess that's a blood pressure shift.
So many things have changed in our world over the last 50 years but I notice my own changes the most. I wonder, if I make it to the reunion, how many friends I'll recognize and how many of them will recognize me? We're all a little shorter, a lot grayer, and a few pounds heavier than we used to be. And I imagine they're feeling the same way I am about the future.
I wish we could turn back the clock and start over knowing all the things we do now. What different experience high school would be with that knowledge! Oh well, we lived, we learned, and those of us who're still around have done our best to stay in touch thanks to Facebook.
I don't have details on the date for the reunion yet or the location. I sure hope it fits into my schedule. I'd love to see certain people I hung out with back then and catch up, especially one or two of my old boyfriends - but I'm sure they're happily married now, as am I.
Getting old is challenging but it's better than not growing old at all. Every day I wake up on this side of the ground, I'm thankful. I hope you are, too.
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