By Emily Banks Wooten
editor@polkenterprise.com
“Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” – Benjamin Franklin I celebrated a birthday recently. And I’m using the term ‘celebrate’ very loosely. I woke up sick that day, spent the bulk of the day lying in bed and didn’t really start feeling better until about a week and half later. I probably should get used to that. I fear it may be the new norm. I seldom get sick, but I’ve discovered that the older I get, the harder it is to rebound when I do.
As family and close friends can attest, I’m no picnic to be around when I’m sick. (But then, who is?) My preferred method of getting through illness is to load up on meds, go to bed and not interact with anyone or get up until I’m feeling better – whether that takes hours or even days. In other words, don’t look at me and don’t talk to me. Just stay away from me and pretend that I don’t exist while I attempt to hibernate my illness away.
Several days later, after I’d returned to the land of the living and was much more pleasant to be around, I began weeding through the emails that had stacked up in my inbox during my illness.
There were five birthday greetings and as I read them all, I couldn’t help but laugh as I began to see the pattern forming. The emails were from Audiological Services, Church Street Financial Services, AARP, Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center and Baylor University. Additionally, I received an actual birthday card in the mail from State Farm Insurance.
In the event you don’t see the pattern, I’ll spell it out for you. I’m officially old.
Audiological Services is a place I went to last year when my dear family was convinced that I was going deaf. And of course I wasn’t. In fact, the audiologist said my hearing was perfect. (I may just have a case of selective hearing when it comes to my dear family.)
Church Street Financial Services manages a retirement account and an IRA for me. I also enjoy their coffee and fresh baked cookies.
AARP is self-explanatory. But for the uninitiated, it’s the acronym for American Association of Retired Persons. Between the time one turns 40 and 50, AARP begins flooding your mailbox with mailers. Suffice it to say that I’ve been on their mailing list for quite a while now. But that’s okay. Once you suck it up and join, members get fairly decent discounts on hotel reservations and rental cars. (Trying to look at the bright side here.)
Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center and I go way back. I give blood regularly. There’s a tremendous need and I just feel like it’s the least I can do. Besides, they love my O-positive … and they tell me this every time they text me … which seems to be three or four times a week. I’ll never forget my first experience with them years ago. A family friend had been severely injured in a motor vehicle accident and was needing blood. Of course, I’d be happy to give. The only problem was … I didn’t meet the weight requirement. You have to be a minimum of 110 pounds to donate – which I wasn’t at the time. Obviously, that has not been an issue for some time. In fact, at my present weight, I’m probably eligible to donate twice as much each time I enter the donor coach.
Baylor University is my beloved alma mater. I received a first-class education there and had a heckuva good time as well. But I’ll just be blunt about it. For the amount of money that education cost, they doggone better send me happy birthday wishes each year.
I can’t honestly say that I enjoy getting older, although I do know that it beats the alternative. Plus, many lessons and much wisdom have been gained along the way. And contrary to the wise words of Mr. Franklin, I don’t think it’s too late.
