I graduated from college 22 years ago yesterday (May 9, 1999).
My car was born in 1999.
That makes both my car and me-post-graduate 22-years-old.
Here’s the funny thing:
My car’s computer calendar was only set to run for 20 years.
When 2020 rolled around, I noticed that the day and date were
wrong.
Upon further examination, I realized that the system didn’t
know what to do with 2020 because it was only set to keep time through 2019!
The car had limited itself to only twenty years!
That seems pretty short-sighted to me.
Yesterday, as we briefly reminisced about graduation day, two
of my friends and I commented that it seemed just like yesterday that we graduated.
The memories are so vivid in our minds.
Then one of my friends said, “But think about much we’ve
grown since then.”
And that is so true.
In the 22-years-since 1999, my car has been driven over 336,000
miles, but my life has driven so many more. I have owned five different cars,
taught for 16 years at 8 different schools, worked at three different churches,
grown with four different therapists, made two CD’s, worked in full-time
ministry for three years, bowled in a league, done a unit of chaplaincy, led numerous
retreats, written over a decade of these posts, earned two masters degrees,
traveled to Europe, made countless friends, and watched my niece and nephews
grow-up right before my eyes.
In some ways, I am still the baby-Deanna that graduated from
college 22-years-ago, but in other ways, I am a completely different person. And
I am grateful.
I am grateful that my life’s computer-system wasn’t limited
to twenty years and I’m grateful for all the ways I’ve grown.
When you look back over the years of your life, how do you
see that you have grown? What do you celebrate as accomplishments and what do
you mourn as your failures (yet possibility also your greatest teachers)?
How do you mark the miles of your life?
Oh God, you have brought us this far. Help us to keep going
and to keep growing with You. Amen.
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