I have never lied about my age. Let’s just say I’ve never had to. Suddenly something changed this week. I was so tempted to lie when a colleague asked me about my age at a surprise party arranged for my birthday. I almost heard myself say 35 before good conscience prevailed and I said “Guess?” Her answer made my day but also got me thinking. Why is it that we always want to be younger than we really are? ItIronically enough, didn’t we all want to be older, when we were younger?
It’s funny how a birthday changes everything. I remember when, the day after his 6th birthday, my son asked “Now I’m almost 7 years old, right Mama?” I smiled. Turns out, it’s not just the kids that use this birthday logic. Just a week before my birthday I attended this seminar and had to fill up a form with all my details. So guess what I wrote in the ‘Age’ column? I wrote 36, knowing that my 37th birthday was coming up. “But I am not 37 yet!”, I consoled myself. Right up until the clock struck at midnight on my birthday, I was 36. The birthday just magically makes you a year older. It happens all the time.
What is it about age that unnerves people so much? I think it all comes down to this – what have you done in comparison to what you thought you would by this age? And what have you not done that you thought you would by now? So as I start thinking about this, I realize this one thing. Among all the mundane but necessary things that we do in our life, there has to be a special place for a bucket list. A list that is close to your heart, is full of things that matter most to you, no matter how silly. It could be as exotic as spending a year on that white washed Greek island, as adventurous as going sky diving or as simple as starting a blog.
So this birthday, instead of fretting over getting another year older, here’s to a renewed focus on my bucket list!
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