“Youth is wasted on the young” – George Bernard Shaw
It is so true.
I recently turned 52. How did that happen?
Every now and then it dawns on me that I’m not getting a re-do.
I’ll never get a chance to jump or run like I did as a child.
Driving is a necessity….its not exciting like it was at 16.
I’ll never see my twenties again (that’s probably good…I didn’t treat them well).
Any chance I had of giving birth to my own child is long gone.
When I look back on my youth I question why I made some decisions.
What if I turned right instead of left. What person would I be if I had not walked away from a bad situation or walked into a place of peace.
Sometimes its hard to picture every little instant and every little step that brought me to this age and this moment.
Youth is long gone. But my future is bright. When I turn 82 I will look back at the youth of 52….my goal is to enjoy every possible moment in between.
The A – Z Challenge will run through April. Each day is a different letter and a different photo…I hope you all enjoy!
Conversations Around the Tree 
Sometimes I lie in bed and wonder how I got to be 47.
You must be pretty youthful though – you have the same neon-colored sweatshirt on that both my 12 and 9 year olds own!
Happy A-Z • http://gvpeasachantrant.blogspot.com
LOL! Your children aren’t the first “young people” I’ve know to own that sweatshirt!
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I often wonder how things would have turned out for me if I’d made a few decisions differently – and it’s tempting to wish I could go back – if only I knew then what I know now.
Don’t know if you’re a Star Trek fan, but there’s an episode where Captain Picard’s artificial heart is failing – and along comes Q (an omipotent prankster) to toss him back to his youth, giving him a chance to avoid the bar fight where his real heart gets damaged. Anyhow, he succeeds in being a more responsible and cautious young person, but when he pops back to the present day, his life is totally altered, and not for the better. He ends up begging Q to switch things back saying he’d rather die as the man he was than live as the sniveling man his overly cautious attitude created.
Anyhow… sorry for the long detour into Star Trek worship – I guess I just think that we should honor all of the decisions we made when we were younger – even the “bad” ones, because they helped mold us into the people we are today! 🙂
I’d imagine that if you are a Trckie you could well be in The Force. So just in case, I say: “May the 4th be with you!” I’m not into sci-fi myself but I do love dressing up and any excuse will do! xx Rowena
Rowena…I also love any excuse to dress in costume!! Though I’ve never dressed as a Sci-fi character….I do have quite a collection of animals!!
I have a zebra onesie which I’ve worn out skiing and once to the beach with the kids for a bit of a hoot.
Rowena….when my Pomeranian was alive she and I dressed alike every year at Halloween. One of my favorites was squirrel costumes!!
My 3 day walk team bought animal onesies (mine is a monkey). We wear them while we’re in camp!
That’s fabulous. Sometimes, you feel like you’re the only quirky one out there and then you find another one…yippee!!!
Yippee indeed!!
Cat lady – I appreciate the detour. Even though I’m not a huge Star Trek fan 🙂
That is a perfect example of why we need to honor our past instead of regret it. We are the people we are because of the choices we’ve made. Good or bad!!
y Hi Tree,
You’ve been reading my mind with this post. Yesterday, our son attended his guitar audition to get into a performing arts class at high school. He is a born performer and wanders around the house singing and al the world is his stage. Yest, as an 11 year old, he wouldn’t sing in public (boys don’t sing apparently) and as for drama? Boring! After sitting on him like an elephant in what turned into a tag team effort from myself who can’t play guitar , my husband, my brother and a last minute hour lesson with my Mum before we left (she’s a piano teacher and got him to think about the story the song was telling to get the dynamics in) I was also responsible for wardrobe qand his intro. We both have a bit of a weakness for rthymn and I thought getting the overall package looking good might help. Mum also recommended taking a music stand and the teacher commented on how organised he was. Ha! The lot of us, my mum included, lose everything. Hoping all these little bits help to support his application and that he meanwhile appreciates what it takes to succeed…more than being glued to the ipad xx Rowena
The best of luck to your son (or is it break a leg?)
Every person in our life contributes a piece of who we become. It sounds like your son has a very supportive village around him!!
He often needs it too but he gives back as well. He can be incredibly helpful and when he smiles, you feel the sun. When he was in kindergarten and I’d pick him up after school, he’d leap up on me giving me the hugest hugs. So exuberant!
I just love kids with such joy!
He is beautiful.
This entry struck a chore with me. I have done all the above. I’m now 56 and often think back to 46 and think how young i was and how old i felt – living in the moment has to be the way from now on! ~Liz Congrats on getting to the end! http://www.lizbrownleepoet.com (don’t use Twitter of Blogger links, they don’t work!)
Wisdom does come with age!
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I look forward to visiting your page.
Tree
Tree, I have a few years on you and sometimes I feel ancient and other days I’m still the 20some year old with endless opportunity ahead.
Thirty years from now – at 89 – I don’t want to have regrets about the things I didn’t try. I’m pretty confident though I will look back and be wistful at how young I was at 59 🙂
Hopefully your goal of 52 new things will help with no regrets 🙂
From everything I see on your blog I have no doubt you will remain active and remain “young” for many more years. And at 89 you’ll probably be training for the senior Olympics!!
hahahaha! The senior Olympics have actually crossed my mind 😉 Who knows? As an eighty year old, I might finally see a podium finish 🙂
It’s crossed my mind too!
If nothing else the number of people competing at that age gives us an advantage!!
My mom used tho say that all the time “youth is wasted on the young” and now I say it because I finally understand it! I feel like you were in my brain and wrote down everything I have been thinking the last couple of years. Here’s to many more years of living in our youthful moments!!
I sure do think it’s a true statement!! I hope you don’t mind me crawling around in your brain to get the idea for this post 🙂
And yes to many more years!
I think those things, too, especially when I see my son jumping on a trampoline. Can’t do that again. Or when I think about how I used to love to do back dives. It goes by quickly, but sometimes youth seems forever ago. Getting out of bed without pain and creaks would be lovely! But as you say, when we’re 82, we will long for these days.
Yes that trampoline thing can be tricky…especially when you have one of those over 50 girl bladders!!
Thanks for commenting!