I like to think that I march to the beat of a different drummer, maybe that one-armed drummer from Def Leopard. I don't want to follow someone else's path. I want to clear-cut a back roads crooked trail of my own.

I have never been happier in my own skin than I am now. I like being me. When I was younger I worried more about what other people thought. Now I worry more about what I think. I like being able to get up every morning and being happy with who I greet in the mirror. In the end, you are the one that you are going to grow old with. The longest and hopefully most stable relationship that you will ever have in your life is with yourself. It helps to be honest. I always suspect when I am lying but I usually let it go because I can just get so unreasonable and defensive.

I tell people that I love them when I do. Sometimes when I drink, I tell people I love them even when I don't. I don't drink that often so I can live with that. I say what I feel when I should say what I think instead. I try to never regret anything. That's a work in progress. I do not dwell on the things that I do not have because I know that while I do not have everything I want, I do have everything I need. The rest will come.

I like to dream big. What would be the purpose of dreaming small? I want to live by the sea in Scotland and explore ruins that my ancestors built. I want to be a beach bum on the sands of Costa Rica. Sometimes I even want to leave everything and live with the Amish for a year. I intend to do all these things.

I see the humor in every situation, it's always there but sometimes harder to find than others. I seek it out like an old friend. I wear it like a pair of comfortable worn slippers. Sometimes I use it as armor against an attack or a sharpened sword against a foe.

When I grow old, I hope that people will refer to me as that crazy old lady down the street. I want to chase kids out of my yard by barking and growling loudly. I want to answer the door for a Jehovah Witness in knee socks and a Freddie Krueger mask and nothing else. I want to flirt with the paperboy when I'm 80 and be just senile enough to think he likes it.

When asked as a child what we wanted to be when we grew up, my sister and I thought it hilarious to answer that we wanted to be a burden to society. She definitely achieved all her goals. Now I am just happy that I grew up to be me.

Learn more about this author, Marsha Sigman.
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