1983 – 28 years ago

Sometimes, I forget how fast time goes by. It’s not until I look at old photos do I realize how far I’ve come.

My 28th birthday is tomorrow. I know I am on a journey and I have not yet reached my destination. Though I’m not married and have no children yet, I am glad to be free to live anywhere in the world I wish. Next year I will finally make that move..which makes me very excited for 28.

Tuesday with Morrie by Mitch Albom talked about aging best.

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“All this emphasis on youth-I don’t buy it. Listen I know what a misery being young can be, so don’t tell me its so great. All these kids who come to me with their struggles, their strife, their feelings of inadequacy, their sense that life was miserable, so bad they wanted to kill themselves.. And, in addition to all the miseries, the young are not wise. They have very little understanding about life. Who wants to live every day when you don’t know what’s going on? When people are manipulating you, telling you to buy this perfume and you’ll be beautiful, or this pair of jeans and you’ll be sexy-and you believe them! It’s such nonsense.”

Weren’t you ever afraid of growing old. I asked?

“Mitch, I embrace aging. It’s very simple. As you grow, you learn more. If you stay at twenty-two, you’d always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just a decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s also the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.”

Yes, I said, but if aging were so valuable, why do people always say, “Oh if I were young again.” You never hear people say, “I wish I were sixty-five.”

He smiled. “You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven’t found meaning. Because if you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. you want to see more, do more. you can’t wait until sixty-five.”

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With that being said. I am thankful to turn 28. I share my life with beautiful people, who love me and who bring me so much joy. I can’t wait to see what this year has in store.