Milestones

We’ve been celebrating a lot of birthdays at work so of course there’s the reminiscing of days gone by.

As I step into the double nickels and look back, I see what an incredible journey it’s been.  Not everything has been sunshine and rainbows.

‘They’ say your best years are when you are young, but what makes those years ‘the best’?

Milestones:

I was married at 18 and had 2 kids by age 20.  At 21 I was of legal age to drink so I tried a wine cooler.  I didn’t understand what all the hype was about.  At 22, the kids and I left right after my birthday and headed to a shelter.  I was done with the abuse (or so I thought). We spent 3 months in the shelter including that Christmas.  Their dad went off to attempt to get the help he needed while the boys and I settled in to this new living arrangement.  The new year brought renewed hope and we moved into an apartment, just the boys and I.  Their dad eventually moved back and within a couple years we found ourselves without a roof over our head.  We spent a few months living in a tent at the local park.

30 was a rough year.  We lost dad in May and mom in November.  To say 30 sucked would be an understatement.

Fast forward to 38 – this was a mixed emotion year for me.  My marriage was ending but I had unknowingly met my future husband.  I wasn’t looking it just happened.  We became friends and realized that we have always been SO CLOSE but never knew each other.  We went to the same high school just different years.  We knew so many of the same families only he knew the older kids and I knew the younger.  We even went to the same double wedding (him for one sister and me for the other) and yet somehow we still managed to have never met.  We met only when the timing was right.

40 – by age 40 life had begun again for me.  I had the unique opportunity to travel all over this big beautiful country and best of all, I got to do it with my best friend aka husband.

50 – by 50 we had settled down and had taken jobs that kept us at home.  It’s a bit more mundane but it also gave us the insurance we needed for the medical issues that we had only begun to face.  Bruce was diagnosed with Melanoma and underwent a year worth of immunotherapy treatment.  The treatment left his body weak and he now has an aneurysm.  The following year brought 2 neck surgeries, 1 for him and 1 for me.  Moving on there was shoulder surgery for me and earlier this year, I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Some of the milestones are more difficult then others, but with each one we grow a little stronger; maybe not physically, but mentally and even emotionally. Has there been some milestones that you’ve faced where you look back and realize, it’s changed you for the good? Maybe you’re more empathetic to someone or you’ve changed your response to certain situations.

Embrace the milestones - good and bad.