Accomplishments

Remember how when you were a kid, certain things about being grown-up just seemed incredibly cool?  Well, I don’t know if that’s true for everyone, but for me it was.  There were many little things I really looked forward to achieving.  Sometimes I like to remind myself of those things, because I’ve achieved so many of them… and this has nothing to do with my job or my education or even becoming a mother.

Accomplishments that are Grown-Up that I Admired as a Child and have Now Achieved (in no particular order):

• Wearing lace-up shoes – and being able to do them up myself
• Writing in cursive (oh! I remember how much work that was at first)
• Having keys (I don’t know, just something about the jingle of keys sounded like an adult)
• Wearing a watch – especially one with hands
• Being able to type really fast (one of the reasons to play “store” and be the cashier was to pretend to be an expert super-fast typer on the calculator – this was before bar codes were scanned with a beep)
• Wearing high heels and real nylons (and to think, now I avoid them as much as possible)
• Quitting biting my nails and growing them long
• Wearing makeup – face paint didn’t count (dance recitals were the first real makeup-wearing opportunities)
• Having my own tapes and a tape player (ha ha)
• Having a job (my very first one was as an assistant in younger ballet classes – the idea of it was more important than the money at the time, since I rarely spent my money)
• Wearing glasses (I was jealous when my sister got them)
• Getting to be staff at Camp (teen staff were the coolest people ever)
• Being able to play the flute (I could play the recorder, but something about the transverse nature of the flute – and the fact that my big brother and his friend both played it – made it seem way cooler)
• Needing a bra, getting my period etc. (I was a bit of a late bloomer in this)
• Driving a car (ditto)
• Having a boyfriend (even though the idea was scary – could one really spend time alone with a boy and know what to talk about?)

See, once I get going on a list like this, I realize I am constantly living my childhood dreams!  It’s fun.  Try it y’self.