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OPINION

This week while trying to finalize my Christmas plans and presents, I celebrated yet another birthday.

I don’t generally look forward to getting any older, but I do like cake!

I didn’t really know how to feel at first — maybe grateful I am still alive, healthy and really I SHOULD have little to no complaints about the cards life has dealt me. AND, I feel a little bit of anxiety knowing that I’m heading towards ‘middle age,’ unsure how I am measuring up so far — I need to stop doing that.

I’ve learned many lessons in my life and I suspect I will continue to learn for quite some time. I would hope so.

But as I think back...is it all as my five-year-old, 10-year-old or 20-year-old self would have seen things? Is ‘adult’ life quite as I had imagined, and does the world look as I expected it would in 2017?

Not even close.

Remembering back to my pre-internet world where advanced technology included my Speak & Spell, shoulder pads were all the rage and Slap bracelets were injuring kids everywhere. It was definitely a different scene back then and the world seemed a lot smaller.

Gas and candy were so much cheaper and fashionable diets were just starting to ramp up.

Things haven't become better or worse necessarily, just different.

I know I’m lucky. I’ve been able to fulfil many goals and dreams and I’ve met so many people throughout my travels. Many of them I’ve spent literally all of ten minutes with but they had an impact on my life — they probably don’t even know it…I didn’t even know it right away.

I have been able to travel throughout my life — both locally and internationally (and I would probably travel more if I could ride a train to most places and avoid flying forever) and I attended post-secondary school without having to take on a lot of debt.

That is most definitely a win.

I’ve fallen in love and had someone fall for me (at least I THINK the second one is true).

I’ve been able to experience having both a career and having children, and best of all I was able to make those choices for myself.

If I had a life list, I think I would have quite a few boxes checked off, but I still have quite a few more things I want to see and do.

I am so appreciative for what I have.

Perhaps it is because I am another year older, or maybe because it is nearing the end of 2017 (and that always stirs up a combination of nostalgia and curiosity with me, not to mention Back to the Future always runs on TV), but I find myself wondering, if any of us could give our younger selves just one piece of advice, what would what that piece of advice be?

And would our younger selves even bother to listen?

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