Bingo!

This is the first year that my age has started to affect my ego. Perhaps if I was a Jehovah’s Witness, I would be immune to it. (They don’t celebrate birthdays, right?)

I don’t think I’m alone, but up until now, I didn’t understand why people got so worked up about it. Here’s the thing – I spent the first half of my life over-achieving (starting college while in high school, graduating college before I turned 21, making good money and SAVING it, blah, blah, blah). But now that I’m here, my age has caught up with my accomplishments and I’m pretty much the same as everybody else (dare I say, the middle of the bell curve?).

Now, I look at my life as being on the descent when I never really got to reach my personal peak. I’m single and I look at men my age and think, ‘oh my gosh – I could never go out with that old man.’ I see women my age ‘scrapbooking’ – yawn – are you kidding me? I just don’t see myself as being my age. And yet, here I am with a birth certificate to prove it.

It reminds me of my Grandmother, known as ‘Gramma Bush’ to one and all, whether related or not. She was an incredible role model for living a full life no matter your age. She lived a full life and then found and married the love of her life at the age of 52. Awesome! (there’s still time) She wrote and published a genealogy book tracing our family heritage back to the 1700s – unbelievable. She did all of this when she was over 50 years old.

But she had her ego, too. I remember when she moved out to California to be closer to us. She moved into a senior living complex. It had cool little apartments and activities. Basically, it was a dormitory for seniors and they “rocked the casbah”, just like anybody else. I asked her one time why she didn’t join the others for the activities and she said, ‘I’m not going to spend my evenings playing Bingo with a bunch of old people.’ Touche! I hear you Grandma!

When we gave her a 90th birthday party she got upset that we had put the number 90 on her cake. Isn’t that fantastic? I love thinking about that. It means she never lost her ego. Ultimately, she lived to be 100 years old (almost 101). She was an incredible human being with more courage and strength than anyone I know. She lived through covered wagons to 747’s as her mode of transportation. She married, had two children and divorced in a time when nobody got divorced. Her first husband was an alcoholic and abusive. She told me a story when the whole town was keeping her secret from him – she had a job. Can you imagine?

So much more to say about ‘Gramma Bush.’ But for now, I think the lesson is this: Don’t ever lose your ego!