Do you ever need to do the math to remember how old you are?
For me it started after 30.
Um, let’s see…. 2010 — 1975 — carry the 1…
35.
Wait, no I was born in May. 34. Still 34.
I always do the math now, because I spent an entire year telling people I was 32 when I was really only 31.
Sometimes the math is shocking.
It’s 17 years this spring since I graduated from high school. I’m closing in on the 20 year mark.
20 years?
In my memory it’s still yesterday. When did it get to be so long ago?
Almost two decades since I plastered my bangs high in the air with Aquanet, pegged and rolled my jeans and listened to Boyz II Men on the radio.
Yeah. The 90′s.
I said it was a long time ago. I didn’t say I missed it.
The math can be good too.
This month my husband and I celebrate our 12th anniversary. And we still like each other.
We’re not perfect. We have moments when we want to strangle each other. But the good stuff far outweighs the bad. I look forward to counting the next 50 years with him.
Then there are times when the cold hard facts of the numbers take my breath away.
It just can’t be possible that my oldest is five, and heading to kindergarten this fall. It can’t be possible that the baby will be one already in May.
Everyone says it. “They grow up too fast.” You don’t believe it when sleepless nights stretch into long tired days. But numbers don’t lie. The math reminds me to cherish this time with my little ones. Even the days when they splash so much water from the bathtub that it leaks into the basement, and they stain the beige carpet with grape juice.
I’m actually not very good at math. College Algebra almost ruined my life. I can balance my checkbook five times in a row, and arrive at five different numbers. But those kinds of numbers really are insignificant.
It’s the equations that add up to a life that really matter.
When I’m, uh–
…34 plus 50…add that to 1975…
84 in 2059 I want to sit next to my husband in our matching wheels chairs, and like him even more than I do now. I want to see my children who grew into compassionate adults. I want to hear my grandchildren laugh, and watch them get into mischief.
If that’s what the numbers tell me all those years from now, I’ll know I got the answers right.
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About Colleen Stout
This is my first time to visit your blog, it was through a link on another blog.
I am telling you, I felt every word of that article you wrote. It is like you are speaking words on my mouth. And yes, I am also the one who tells people I’am 31 when I was really 30.
Sometime, I feel I want to go back and stretch those old days the most. I have 2 girls 7 and 5 and just like you said, I am in total disbelief that they have grown so much.
Time flies, a day after the other, a week after another and a year after another. Oh boy, I wish it slows down a bit….
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That’s so funny that you were telling people you were older than you are. That’s totally something I would do.
I love they way you wrote this post. A very unique take on life moving too quickly, and remembering to enjoy the kids when they are young, while looking forward to the future.
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I hit the 15 year marker this year with the husband too, but I keep doing the math to make sure that in fact it’s really 15 because it doesn’t feel that long. Great post.
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What a beautiful post…thanks for reminding me what is important. And funny too that I told someone that I was 37 and my husband said “uh, no you are 36″ We practically had a fight about it until I realized that he was right. For some reason I had thought for a while now that I was 37 until that happend….LOL!
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Great post. We were born the same year! My husband and I are also celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary this year and it just doesn’t seem possible. I have a ten year old now, which REALLY makes one feel old. Wow.
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Good one Colleen! I hope I like my husband more when we’re old, too. He won’t let us have matching wheelchairs though. He won’t even tell me what he’s ordering in a restaurant because he says I copy him! haha!
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I froze at about 29, I think. But my husband did have to inform me the other day that I keep telling people I am 34, and that I am not. And haven’t been for about 9 months.
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