49 & 3/4

This coming Saturday is a reunion of sorts, some of us from the graduating class of 1978, secondary 4 at St Josephs Convent will be getting together.  We were 16 then, and 34 years later, in the year we turn 50, we are getting together to see how life has treated us. 
I have kept in touch with a couple of the girls but as I wasn't a very friendly person in the first place I didn't have a very wide circle of friends to keep in touch with.  I was painfully shy and didn't make friends easily.  In that area,  I ha vent changed much.  I still find it hard to make friends or socialise!
One of the girls created a facebook page and so far we have at least 40 of us on that page.  Some I remember and recognise and some I don't.  It will be interesting to see them again and  I am looking forward to it.  But I guess we all will be looking at each other wondering if we managed to achieve  any of the dreams we had as innocent 16 year olds.

Have I achieved everything I wanted to do, has it turned out like I thought it would.  No it hasn't.
I wanted to be a history teacher or an archaeologist and I never wanted to marry or have kids. I wanted to be footloose and fancy free, to go where I wanted and do what I wanted.  I wanted to travel to exotic locations and live in mud huts and tents, to dig the earth for relics and bits of pottery from ancient times.

I may not have done what my 16 year old me wanted to do, there are a few regrets but I have grown up to realise that the road we are on takes a few twists and turns and if we manage to come back to the path we originally created ( i refuse to say the "right"path) we should be ok.
Oh God!  I think I am all grown up now and just about to reach adulthood!!

I still want to travel, and see things.  I may not want to stay in mud huts or tents or dig for relics but travelling and seeing places is still high up there on my list of things to do.  I still want to be free, still want to be able to do the things I want to do.  I don't feel very different in my mind as I did all those years ago and sometimes I am taken aback when I realise how old I really am!  Its a state of mind, getting older.  some of us achieve it and some of us just carry on knowing that the body may be getting creakier but in our minds we are still that innocent girl that dreams of doing exactly what she wants!