25th reunion

In two weeks time, I will be attending my 25th reunion.  I have been pondering all that this means in my world.  25 years has passed since I graduated from college.  I am middle aged.  Weren't the Middle Ages bad like filled with dungeons and dragons and stuff?  I mean if I would live to be 100 I am not quite there yet but let's be real 100 is a stretch, especially with my inability to eat right and exercise and floss for goodness sake.

I will go.  I will wish I was 100 pounds lighter.  I will wish I would have cured cancer.  I will wish I would have tried harder at that whole winning the noble peace prize thing, but I'm not, I didn't and I am pretty sure I am not even on their radar.

Here is the thing though, these are the people that were with me the first four years of my new life.  The life where I was Erika, not Jim and Norma's daughter, not Eureka, not little league.  I was Erika, the weird girl (I embraced it.)

I have to say I am way more interesting than that Erika was.  I have matured (somewhat). I have had life experiences, and while I don't have regrets necessarily I do have things that I would have done completely differently if only I had known.  I hate the cringy memories.  The things that are burned in my memory that I didn't necessarily mean the way that they were interpreted.  I hate the missed opportunities, the things I didn't do but wish I had but was too scared.

I wish I would have looked farther into the future than just I want to get married and have kids.  I am trying to help my own children navigate those waters.  Do not live your life anticipating the next step, live in the present.  Enjoy the here and now.  Go out...Be kind!