Twenty-one

I realize now that in my mind I'm still twenty-one but my body betrays me. Some of the children I taught such a short time ago are now grandparents, with grandchildren older than mine. In my mind's eye, they are still teenagers and I am still twenty-one. Is this what Rick's grandmother talked about when she said, at eighty, "When I get old, I'm going to sit in my rocking chair and watch the people go by?"

Through Facebook today it's possible to stay in touch with former students. The students of my first Grade 11 class are in their mid fifties now. Oh my! Where does time go? Yet I wouldn't want to go back and start over again.

Life is about the here and now, and enjoying each moment, each stage. The experience of being a grandparent has made this age, which isn't so great physically, one of my favourite times of life. This twenty-one year old loves to play with her grandchildren and see the world through their eyes. That young woman of the 1970s could not have imagined all the joy that was in store for her. 

The experiences of my life, good and bad, got me here to this place in time and ready for this experience. Lucky woman!