Never thought I’d do that list
I am imagining a conversation with myself (today) with myself around age 18. Back then I didn’t know what I didn’t know and certainly had no clue what was waiting for me just around the corner.
So here goes. The order is only the way the items come to mind – no hierarchy. I can also think of some things that are too personal to add to the list.
- Care for a terminally ill child (on the other hand since we’re all terminally ill – what was I thinking?).
- Have 75 foster children call me Daddy.
- Have 12 children (I have a feeling this one will change).
- Get a vasectomy (yikes).
- Get fired (They said your position is eliminated but would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?)
- Suction bodily fluids from a sick child several times a day.
- Clean up so much barf (mostly not my own).
- Work for the Catholic Church – for a Cardinal Archbishop even.
- Leave my first job.
- Be a CEO.
- Not be a CEO any more.
- Like dark beer.
- Go whitewater rafting.
- See four of my own children be born.
- Realize that both my parents were dead.
- Bring home a premature baby.
- Change diapers for 27 years straight.
- Learn to use a pulse-ox machine.
- Go our to a restaurant carrying an oxygen tank on my back (not for me).
- Have three kids in college at one time and no paying job.
- Love and care for a terminally ill child.
- Enter and finish a 5K.
- Attend a church where I was a minority.
- Help plan a funeral for and bury a child.
- See a good woman’s plea for forgiveness rejected.
- Walk around the zoo dressed as a giant penguin.
- March in an elementary school parade dressed as a large penguin.
