I’m 36 for a Moment.

Recently Abby and I were driving to pick up Sean from one of his after school programs when “100 Years” by Five for Fighting came on the radio. I have really liked that song ever since I first heard it years ago and found myself connecting again with the various ages in the verses as they came along in lyrics.

I often get choked up when I listen to “100 Years” as I think it captures so well how life goes by so quickly and we don’t always appreciate the ages and stages we are at until the time has passed us by.

Today is my birthday and (to reference the song/adapt it for my purposes)

I’m 36 for a moment.

I thought it would be fun to do a post inspired by and including the lyrics to “100 Years.” Originally I was going to post pictures of me and reflect on my life at the ages of 15, 22, 33 and present day, since that is as far as I have made it through the song so far. I went through some of my old photo albums to pick out one for each age that I thought really captured me and my life in 1990, 1997 and 2008.

However, the scanner function on our printer is not working. I spent much too long this weekend trying to fix it and in doing so managed to screw up the functioning of our printer overall. When I started we could still print things from our desktop and make copies from a document feeder, it was only the flatbed scanner/copier that was not working. Now it doesn’t work at all!

They say insanity is trying to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I can tell you that after all of my fruitless attempts to get our printer/scanner to work over the past two days that I was definitely starting to go insane. Finally Bob convinced me to take a break since my efforts seemed to be going nowhere. So for now you will have to imagine what I looked like back then, unless you have known me that long and remember.

Even though part of my idea for this post didn’t exactly work out, I still find it interesting to reflect on my life so far, as it relates to these lyrics. I do sometimes wish I could go back and visit myself at 15, knowing what I know now. I would love to give “15 year old Kathy,” who was a freshman and then sophomore in high school, some advice about what I believe is (and is not) really important in life. Though I do realize that advice alone usually isn’t enough for us to learn what we need to at any given age. Most of the time to learn those key lessons in life I think we have to experience things (both good and bad) for ourselves to really understand.

Another reason I have always felt such a connection to this song is that by age 22, I had met the love of my life Bob and thus can relate to the lyrics for that verse. At 22 I was in my senior year of college at the University of Illinois (U of I) and later graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Leisure Studies: Program Management after completing an internship with the Chicago Park District. Towards the end of my 22nd year I began my Master’s degree at U of I in Leisure Studies: Recreation Management. During that time Bob and I continued our relationship, though it became temporarily long distance, for the 1 1/2 years that it took for me to complete my Master’s while Bob was living back home in Chicago and working in “the real world.”

By age 33, Bob and I had officially been a “they” for 7 1/2 years (after getting married in September 2000). By then we had an amazing son Sean that was 4 1/2 and after struggling with secondary infertility and pregnancy loss for over 3 years, I was finally pregnant again (with Molly). Thus we did have “a kid on the way,” with “family on my mind.” Though that was definitely an incredibly bittersweet year in my/our life.

As for where I will be and what will be happening in my life if I am blessed and lucky enough to still be alive and kicking at 45, 67 and 99, time will tell…

For now I will leave you with the lyrics to “100 Years” and a picture of me with my dear husband Bob and amazing children Sean & Abby (with Molly in our hearts) from earlier this year.

Thank you for your love, friendship and kindness over the past year and the 35 before that.

I look forward to what new and wonderful experiences being “36 for a moment” will bring.

100 Years ~ By Five for Fighting

I’m 15 for a moment,
Caught in between 10 and 20,
And I’m just dreaming,
Counting the ways to where you are.

15 there’s still time for you
22 I feel her too
33 you’re on your way
Every day’s a new day…
15 there’s still time for you
Time to buy and time to choose
Hey 15, there’s never a wish better than this
When you only got 100 years to live.