New Year or 50 Years?

As this old year has come to an end, my mind has driven into overdrive. I hate it when I do this.

We live in an area that has 3 major universities within a 50 mile radius. There is one particular grocery store I go to that always has a lot of college students shopping there. Tonight was no different.

As I saw one after the other going down the isles, I began thinking about the world I missed out on. I wondered what it would have been like to go to college. What my dorm room would have looked like, or would I have lived off campus in an apartment. What kind of friends I would have made. What kind of grades I could have maintained. Would I have been a partier; or settled in with just a close friend or two.

Then, I thought about where I would be career wise had I got an education. Would I be in medicine? Would it be human or animal? Would I have married or chosen to remain single.

Finally, I began thinking about the mistakes I have made in my life. Where I’d be if I had shown more self-control in some areas. How many people would not have been hurt by my actions?

Maybe it isn’t just the new year coming quickly upon me. Maybe it is the fact I am 50. Fifty sounds so ancient to me. It sounds like I should be further in my life. Have more to show for 50 years I have been here. Be happier, more content, instead of looking back over the mistakes I have made and where I’d be had I not made them.

I love everyone in my life. I would not have traded my loved ones for anything, so this is not a slam against anyone. Some of them I would not have had I not taken the roads I took.

I just can’t help but think though. Should there not be more out there to show for 50 years?