To most people, 50 years represents a milestone, yet it’s a milestone that many people don’t want to hit as it represents age but to me it represents time gained. Not everyone gets the time we do on this earth. Whether it’s 5 years or 50 years, every second, minute, hour, day, week, month and year is a blessing as our time here isn’t promised and not everyone gets this time. When we look at age, we see it as turning older, but we should see it as another year of life experienced and gained.
It’s easy to take the time for granted. We live every day just going through the motions of what we know with not much thought about the fact we have just gained another day of life to make new memories, experience new things and do things we love. This is an exciting concept thinking about it this way, but it is easy to forget about it. We dread certain days, we play victim, we waste time, we don’t live fully all as the clock ticks away.
When you think about a milestone, think about all that you have experienced in that time. My dad turned 50 last summer, I joked with him at his fortieth birthday that when we celebrated his fiftieth birthday, I’d be 21 and legally able to drink. I was only 11 but now I’m almost 22. When you’re young, you wish the time away but when you’re older, you wish time would slow down. We’re so stressed over time focusing on it, but I think it’s how you use that time you’re given to fulfill your life.
Recently, I feel as though I have learned just how fast life goes by and just how fast it could be gone. I feel like I just graduated from high school yesterday with my mom, dad, pop-pop and step-father, Dan, in the bleachers. Four years later, I’m about to graduate again but we’re missing someone this time. Dan’s time ended unexpectedly. In those four short years, life changed in the blink of an eye because our life is not promised.
This will not be a sad article as forcing ourselves to be sad is a waste of our given time. This article celebrates the time of my mother. When she read the title, I’m sure she thought to herself: “oh great Abigail just exposed my age.” But I hope that thought soon changed as she read what the article was really about…time.
Mom, you have lived 438,000 hours, 18,250 days, 2,607 weeks, about 600 months and 50 years. A milestone to most, but a granted time given to you to experience 50 years of life that many people don’t get the opportunity to experience. As I have only been alive for 21 of those years, I can’t say I know everything you’ve done but I do know there’s definitely been a lot, both good and bad, but that’s what makes life, life.
With that being said on your 50th birthday, I wish you lots of laughter whether it’s through Sebastian Maniscalco, me antagonizing people (especially you) or from your friends. I wish you bundles of love, even when it’s tough. I wish you endless happiness, easily accessible with the help of two bulldogs I know. I wish you tons more good memories, like the Magnolia Bakery tumble. I wish you peace and healing. I wish your dreams would come true, like the words in Cinderella’s song that you’d sing to me as a baby. I wish you new experiences to try things you’ve never done. I wish you fulfillment, so you take good use of your granted time. Most importantly, I wish you more time and more milestones.
Cheers to 50 years “momagail”!
Here’s to looking forward to what we do with our time.
I hope you have the happiest of birthday’s… I love you, even when we argue.