by Pat Grant

Created on: August 26, 2008   Last Updated: November 01, 2008

I Never Thought I Would Do This at 50!

I remember when I was 16 years old, thinking I was as good as being an adult. I looked at my father, who was 50 at that time and thought, "But, I never want to be that old!" I grew up in the "never trust anyone over 30" era. Looking back, I laugh at this now. I used to think that hitting 50 meant that your life was as good as over; that you could no longer enjoy the things you did as a youth. And I sure as heck never wanted to give up any of that. I never in my imagination dreamed that I would lose interest in some of these things, or that they would evolve into other similar interests.

When I was young I loved to play "make believe", I played with Barbie dolls, and I read fantasy stories. As I got older I became interested in writing, and I also discovered the world of role-playing games, where I could still "make believe" but with adults now. I am even writing stories for some of those games, and helping to mold the worlds in which I play. And having hit, and passed, 50, I am actually in the process of creating my own gaming system. No, I never thought I would be doing that at this age. I thought I would be sitting in a chair, rocking my grandchildren to sleep, and falling asleep trying to watch some movie late at night. As it turns out, I never had children, so there are no grandchildren. And I do watch movies at night. But usually I do that while I'm working on something on the computer.

I also never thought I would be a joiner of new and different sorts of groups. But here I am, a new member of a local ghost hunting investigation group! Who would ever picture themselves when they're younger, as turning 50 and going out to investigate places reported to be haunted? How cool is that?

A few years ago I was diagnosed as being diabetic. I have to admit this depressed me at the time. A couple of years ago I began having diabetic related problems with my eyes. And now I've been diagnosed with inevitable kidney failure. And I have arthritis. Now, there are two ways you can go with your life at this point. You can let it get you down and turn into that 50 year old you once dreaded becoming some day; or you can do whatever you need to do to stay as healthy as possible and keep going as long as you can, and FIND things to do at 50 which you never thought you would see yourself doing. You will be surprised at how much easier it is to live with the bad stuff, when you have FUN stuff to keep you preoccupied. This is what keeps us young!

So what is next for me? I don't know. I always wanted to go parachute jumping, but that's out of the picture now for sure. But who knows what lurks on my horizon? I'm not ready to grow up yet!

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