by Nita Frazier

Created on: September 25, 2008   Last Updated: November 01, 2008

You Have heard it time and again:" Age doesn't matter; it's only a number."

Once you cross the fifty line age, becomes personal. The number does matter because we are each allotted only so many days to grab our dreams and live a meaningful life. After fifty you realize that you may never write that novel in the back of your mind. You may never see the Amazon or climb Mount Everest.

At fifty, your knees begin to creak and you can't find the bathroom in your own house when the lights are out.

You worry more at fifty than you thought it was possible to worry. By the time you each fifty you know exactly what to worry about.
You lament the fact that family obligations and health concerns keep yo from rushing to the TExas coast to help Hurricane Ike's victims. you do, though, pull out your spare blankets and sweaters and donate them to the local Red Cross.
You listen closely because You have finally learned to value everyone's opinion.

You actually follow your doctor's orders because you doubt your body's ability to heal itself as it once did so miraculously when you were ten.

You guard your money more closely than you did that long-ago piggy bank filled with nickels. This current money must do more than buy a new set of jacks and a soda pop. This money must see you through catastrophic illnesses, your own and your spouse's. This money must also pay for repairs to the leaky plumbing in your elderly parents' house.

Even so, it's difficult to say "no" when your single parent daughter asks for help in buying clothes for her children.

You learn to shop at the local Good Will and Salvation Army stores for clothes and toys for the grandchildren. While picking out those clothes you wonder if you are still the same cheerleader who only wore only designer clothes.

While you're at the Good Will Store, you pick out a duster and a pair of elastic waist jeans for yourself. You feel positively virtuous wearing your new old clothes.
There is a bright side to being over fifty. First, though, you have to practice saying aloud, "I am fifty-six. . . Seven . . Eight." If you say if often enough, you will learn to live it.

After fifty "Fake it until you make it" becomes your mantra.

After fifty you no longer feel self-conscious leaving the house in sweats and without make-up. You do, of course, make sure your hair is combed and that you have applied deodorant
Fifty has its drawbacks, but on the whole, it's a better place to be than thirty was.
At thirty, you could only guess what the future held. At fifty, you are living that future
And are taking it in stride.

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