35

Today I celebrate my 35th year in this world. I look around and not everything is what I imagined but I realize everything is just as it should be. Bumps and bruises and heartbreaks and healing, I touch my toe to the water and the ripple begins.

When you stop and really examine what life has given you. You are faced with the reality of choices, the warmness of blessings and the heartbreak in things you can not change. You realize life has not turned out the way you expected. Some find themselves with families when their dream was to travel the world. Others find themselves single yet again and no we do not have the plague. Never mind the pity that washes over others when you hit THAT age and still have no children. Moments of your life that are raw and real for you become quite evident by others who find themselves happy that they are not in your shoes. Why does life's magic moments miss some and embark on others?

I can honestly say at the ripe young age of 20 I did not see me at 35 just as I am right now. I never imagined I would have to fight a disease that would debilitate my young body over time. I imagined a life with the unconditional love of an amazing man and little ones running under foot as I raced around picking up after them and their busy lives. No, I never I imagined I would be who I am or where I am at today.

Ok, collective sigh around the world in one......two.....three......BUT before you jump on that pity wagon let me give you a few other things to think about. While I may have missed my early in life forever love and not have started my family at a time deemed "appropriate" by some standards, I also never imagined the life I have had up to this point. I never imagined I would have had the brains capable of graduating from a university with a degree in accounting and finish on the Dean's List. I was told in high school that I would most likely be the president of a sorority named Kappa Kappa Sweetheart and drop out once I married. I always thought I would settle down the road from my family but nope, life handed me Arizona and even when it is hot I embrace it so tightly, maybe not as much in the summer! I never imagined I would explore Costa Rica, have explored Baja Mexico, Colorado, Utah and California from the back of a truck!!!!! I have surrounded myself with chosen family that laughs at my crazy antics, allows me to cry when I am in pain and surprises me with my favorite things. I have become a surrogate aunt to my friends little ones and have been blessed to watch a little one grow up in front of my eyes and I am still able to sleep in on the weekends!

I pose the question again, why do life's magic moments miss some and embark on others? The simple answer is that they don't.