Lifetime

I am renewing myself.



Although, I think I renew faster than most people.

By my calculations, I am 124.25 years old.

I tend to age, mentally, much faster than most.

Twice as fast.

And as I'm approaching my (approximate) 35.5th year on this planet, it's all starting to make sense.

3.5 years of age is the first time that I readily started to recognize myself.

It was the age in which I "saw" things for the first time.

Until then, everything was just a blur of existence, including myself.

All feeling, understanding, being was a part of "emotions".

Logic came in at about that age.

Shortly afterwards, I started to notice a pattern.

Every 3.5 years, another "new" thing would occur in my life.

* By age 7, I was already excelling past my first "real" school grade level.

* By 10.5, I was just getting settled into middle school.

* By 14, I was knocking on high school's door.

* At 17.5, I was starting my new life at a college in upper-peninsula Michigan.

* I spent my 21st birthday walking down the street from my sorority house with a pitcher full of whiskey sour.

* I rang in my 24.5 year withholding through the Y2K doom. Then, spent a good portion of the remainder of that time looking for new employment from my first post-college job.

* My 28th year had me snuggled in a new relationship, and leaving my second post-college job.

* By the time I hit 31.5, I had just started my third post-college job and managing a community center. Although my job position was a step up to what I had grown accustomed to, I figured it was high-time I took a shot.

* Now at 35, the community center responsibilities have faded. But, I find myself facing a re-newed challenge: college, again.

It's been 5 of my lifetimes since I've had to really deal with college - at least, from the student end (technically, 3, if you count the short stint I had in 2000).

Being in my 10th life, I wonder what new things I should be doing.

I want to know what I should be reflecting on and learning from my past ones.

During each 3.5 year incarnation, I've grown and lost friends. Most relationships bloom and bust after 2 lives.

I hope that this life is better than my previous ones.

Goodness knows that I need good news.