A Few Things I Didn’t Know 50 Years Ago

I headed into my birthday week thinking it was time for a fresh inventory. As I was pondering this little project, I realized (once again) what a surprising life I’ve had. It certainly has exceeded my early expectations.

I played around with that a bit and began to wonder what my expectations had been fifty years ago. (No one is more startled than I am that I was an adult fifty years ago!)

Back in 1964, I was 22, newly married and in my second year of teaching high school English and speech. I was still living in the small town in southern Minnesota where I grew up, although my parents and siblings had moved to Santa Barbara three years earlier.

I was already beginning to suspect that I was short changing myself, but my crystal ball was fuzzy.

It would be half a dozen years before I began finding the tools and inspiration that would begin moving me in a happier direction.

Thinking back to the person I was in 1964, I realized that there were several things I feared were beyond my reach, even though I secretly longed for them.

So besides the Internet, which was far beyond my imagination at that time, what else has surprised me? What did I not know fifty years ago?

Here are the biggest surprises:

° That I would find work that I loved so much I’d never want to stop doing it.

° Learning is a lifetime adventure.

° That self-employment is the best personal growth project ever invented.

° That inspiration is neither rare nor noisy.

° That my life would be filled with people who had dreams and determination.

° When I know What I want, I can always figure out How to make it happen.

° That I’d fill up several passports and fly more than a million miles.

° That I’d love spending time with my smart siblings.

° That I’d choose to live in Las Vegas.

° That genuine security is nothing like the things I had been told constituted security.

° That Sedona, Venice and grandparenting were even better than I’d anticipated.