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Living A Different Life |
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by Julia Jones
We go to school, fall in love, have our children, and plan our future based on all those ideals and dreams we have carried with us most of our life. Maybe you do become a teacher, fall in love with the boy next door, and have 2.3 children. Normal. Life is normal, and the expected things have gotten you to a certain point in life. Then, life takes a detour, and everything changes. Maybe that perfect husband turns out not to be so perfect, and you find yourself a single Mom over 30, struggling to pay the bills, find a few minutes for yourself, and keep the wolf away from the door. Maybe that perfect job turns out to be boring, uninspiring, and no longer a challenge … and it does not pay enough to keep that wolf from howling at you. Maybe the athletic son turns out to be a homosexual, and brings his boyfriend home to meet you instead of the girl next door. Maybe your daughter wants to be a Marine, and leaves for Europe or the Far East instead of giving you grandchildren. Maybe you lose a child or your spouse to an early death. That is certainly not normal. Maybe you are not a size 8, not tall and thin, not interested in being a secretary/nurse/teacher, and not at all interested in working 8 to 5. What happened to life being normal? What a wake-up call to learn that this IS normal! There are no fairy tale endings, life is not "perfect"… and neither are you (or the woman next door). Life is full of surprises, a few of them shocking. Everyone has a few skeletons in their closet. There are a lot of people out there who suffer through the same things you do. Life is not easy, and it does not come with a money-back guarantee. What do you do now? You move on, and you accept the "new normal." You eat a few casseroles instead of steak; wear the old suit with a new blouse; repair the car instead of shopping for a new model. You hug your kids and accept their friends. You stand at the airport and salute as your daughter/your hero steps into an uncertain future as a Marine officer. You are proud of your son, the mechanic, instead of your son, the doctor. You look in the mirror and like what you see -- a confident, mature, responsible person who can deal with whatever life throws at you. And you stand proud. Accepting yourself as you are, being happy with what you have, and believing that you deserve happiness and contentment is what makes being a Boomer the best age yet. Life has removed some of the fears, and we can be grateful each day for another chance to do a bit better than we did yesterday if we choose to… or we can just say… "This isn't a bad way to be in this old world!".. and go into the day smiling, whistling, maybe even singing a jingle stuck in our head from some old memory. I wish you happy days, good memories … and contentment!
Julia
Jones is a writer who lives in San Angelo, Texas.
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What
do you want to be when you grow up? Ahhh … a question asked to
each of us at a very early age, and one for which we learn to
always have an answer. Little boys want to be firemen or cowboys;
little girls want to be ballerinas, teachers, and mommies. We
all have our ideal person we want to be, but we do not always
take into consideration that life, fate, God, or reality may have
a different answer. 