Thoughts on turning 50

I turned 50 in December, and as anyone who was around to witness the event can assert, I was not real enthusiastic about leaving my 40's behind. I've had almost a month now to get used to the idea. I'm still not liking it much, but I'm hating it a little bit less. Here's why...

There will come a day, God willing, when I am very old and feeble, and I'll look at a picture of me when I was 50, and think, "You were an idiot back then. You still had your life ahead of you! Instead, you were cryin' the blues about turning 50. Grow up!!" 

So, in an effort to grow up, like the older version of me will insist upon in 20 to 30 years time, I'm going to appreciate being 50. I'm going to appreciate the cold reality that people like Princess Diana, who, at the start of her fame had a life many envied and could have had anything she wanted, never got to see 40, let alone 50. I'm going to appreciate that I've had the ability to live an interesting life and, again God willing, there's still a lot more of it to live.

I'm going to focus a little less on the fact that when I was in school and our teacher asked if we had antiques in our home, things over 50, I said, "Yes, my father!!" I will not allow myself to think of myself as an antique!

Yes, there are a lot of things worse than turning 50. And my resolution for 2011 is to remember that very thing, every time I fill out a form where I now have to tick "50+" for my age. *sob* :-)