Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I never thought I'd be heavy for the second half of my life, but that's how it turned out. My thyroid pretty much died in my mid 20s, and the weight gain started when my job changed from an extremely physical one, to a mostly desk job. Since then it has been a daily struggle, mostly unsuccessful and personally demoralizing, to see that I cannot keep weight off no matter what I eat, or how much I exercise. It's odd now to see people react to me as an older chubby lady, when in my head I am still the fun girl with the hot bod to die for.
Lol I've always been the crazy cat lady. Used to be about 4 at a time.
For the past 20yrs or so it's been around a dozen, give or take a couple.
Saw a t shirt online yesterday
"I was normal two cats ago"
Sort of like what I told my belly dancing teacher about my silver obsession.
"I had found the small Isis (sun goddess) so I was just stopping by to get my silversmith's address and a chain for her. Well, two unicorns, one puppy dragon, and 4 chains later......."
As to being a crazy cat lady, it didn't start out that way......but the Angels sent them to me.
As far as age goes, well, back then, I would seek out older men because it played toward my feelings about FWB.....but that was 30 years ago and now that I am that age, it is kind of hard to supply those feelings. Always worry about if I do an Gabrielle Anwar (The Tudors) accidently on one.......
Otherwise....well, you know what they say, "WHAT WAS I THINKING?". One thing that I was thinking once after I got my marine biology degree was to be a fed LE wildlife officer.....until someone pointed out that the cut off age was 35, that ADA doesn't apply there,.......and I was past that mark. Sigh.
......I suppose I was always thinking that the afterburners would never run out.
When I was younger, I thought I was the total antithesis of my mother. In reality, I turned out to be almost exactly like her - a happy homebody who loves to garden and is an innate nurturer.
I think you're right. That being said, wow, was I ever glad we had all our estate stuff in order - wills, POAs, financial accounts, etc. Actually I've had all that stuff straight since I was in my 20s.
Now that I think of it, I also didn't expect to lose both my parents and my brother while I was in my fifties either. I didn't expect my fifties to be so dominated by loss. My sixties or seventies maybe but not my fifties.
Honestly I don't think such loss is anything that could be envisioned by a younger version of oneself. I think our minds just don't go there.
But good on you that your estate planning was carried out so early. That's also a hard, but necessary thing to do.
When I was younger, I thought I was the total antithesis of my mother. In reality, I turned out to be almost exactly like her - a happy homebody who loves to garden and is an innate nurturer.
Welp, I can't think that's all bad, LOL. On the contrary.....
I never wanted to be like my mother- anxious, depressed, irritable, stuck and demanding of children and dependent on an unreliable man. Therefore I never wanted (or had) children.
I did want meaningful work- work that improved the world in some way. I hope I managed that, although it didn't always feel like it and I am glad to be retired. I never thought, if I lived long enough, that I'd retire. I thought you just worked until you died. Here I am, going on four years in retirement and feel like I'm reborn.
So, when you were younger, did you think you would be what you are today?
I did in a way because I always knew what I wanted to be more like my parents in some ways and less like them in some other ways.
I admire them both and feel very fortunate to have them as my role models. I wanted to adopt their fortitude, work ethic, frugality and compassion. I wanted to develop the skills/talents which I admired in each: my father's intellectual curiosity, his interest in literature, music, arts and travel (things which my mother had no use for!), my mother's ingenuity, practicality, engineer mind (traits which were totally absent in my father), and their love of nature and gardening.
My parents were just human and had some undesirable personality traits like my father's occasional fiery temper and my mother's grudge-holding tendency. These personality traits are definitely genetic since I recognize them in their families, myself and one or other trait in in my siblings.
Some of my aspired life goals have been achieved. Some have continued to develop and some may forever remain aspirations.
I have obtained as much education as I could and continue to be a perpetual student but I am nowhere near my father's intellectual levels. My budding literature/artistic skills (writing poetry, novels, paintings) withered early in my youth.
I made a good living as a competent engineer/scientist, love to be a DIYer and pride myself for my practical solving skills. If I had possessed my mother's inborn intuition and abilities, I would have been a much better engineer.
Some of the skills/hobbies which I have acquired like scuba diving, flying and rowing were things which my parents did not do. I enjoy these activities because they seem to infuse my left and right brain sides (my parents' opposing traits). The quote below expresses what I feel about those hobbies.
Quote:
Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life? Aviation combined all the elements I loved. Charles Lindbergh
I am still trying to emulate their fortitude, work ethic, frugality and compassion. I think of them often when facing life challenges big or small. I wish that they would be still around so that I could share pictures of my flowers, vegetables, fruits, birds and all the natural wonders discovered in my trips.
I still have to work hard to control my emotions and manage my feelings. I am much more mellow in my old age and also more forgiving and less critical. I am a much easier person to live with than my younger self.
I am always a glass-half full type of person. I think I have turned out pretty good in spite of not being the 'ideal' person I thought I would grow up to be.
Looking backwards, I’ve evolved very little. Experience has moderated behavior, utterances and methods. But the thinking process, the principal desires and frustrations, have not changed in many decades.
The younger-version of me, would have readily recognized the present one. A few key specific life-events substantially deviated from expectations, but the general tenor, the package of expectations, as been more or less followed. Is this good, or bad? Should we have dreamed more ambitiously as young-people? Should we have matured further than we have? Or on the contrary were we already further ahead in our development in our youth, than that for which society conventionally gives us credit?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think our minds just don't go there. 
