Saturday, January 26, 2013

Time is running out…


It’s approximately sixteen weeks to my birthday, at which time I will turn forty-five years old. Looking back on the two thousand three hundred and twenty-four weekends I have had I don’t know if I used them well. A small portion of them generated wonderful memories, but many of them were spent working for others, which is never a good way to spend a weekend.

If I take the median age of my parents (80 and 86) I could live to 83 (although my brother passed at 49) giving me approximately 1992 more weekends. I should take ten years of weekends off (-520) because we all know old people spend all weekend the restroom, leaving me with 1472 weekends to make some great memories. Will I squander these weekends the way I have wasted so many in the past?

What should my plan for using these weekends to their fullest potential? For the foreseeable future I will still be working, but maybe I can squeeze some meaning out of the weekends before I go to work. Should I do projects? Should I visit friends and laugh? Should make them all about family? Most likely a combination of all the above would make the most sense.

As I muddle through life, I will attempt to not sleep in on the weekends anymore but to get projects done, enjoy family time, and spend time among friends before going to work. A recent article on fighting depression specifically mentioned keeping social ties strong as opposed to isolating one’s self. Who knows I may just call you, reader, and say, “let’s do lunch or dinner.”

How many weekends do you have left? What’s your plan to spend them wisely?

4 comments:

  1. You always stimulate my mind with your writing. Leaving me with not only something to ponder but also something to strive for.
    In regards to your above post I too am approaching a birthday #40 for me so I just have to slightly adjust the math to know how many weekends I have had and how many I have yet to come. My parents are both in their 80's as well and my grandparents all lived to be almost 100 with the exception of my maternal grandmother who died at 53.
    I hope to spend the remaining weekends with family and friends, doing things that I have yet to do. I hope grandkids will be in those weekends as well (but not for a good while on that one LOL).
    I do hope that one of those weekends will be spent catching up with you and getting to meet Su :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm 32 so I hope I have time for family, friends, and travel....but I'm not sure:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lori, I hope to get to catch up with you one day too....

    Tyler....none of us are ever sure, I could die tonight on the way home. That's why you should fill every moment you can doing what you love...because it maybe your last.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've always been impressed by your writing style. Couple that with the depth of your comments and you always post topics that are thought provoking and worthy of contemplation. I'm not sure why you're taking 10 years off of your total as there is no way that us old people spend an entire weekend in the bathroom but, going by the math that you're using and the average age my Grandparents died, that leaves me with a little over 1800 weekends. As for what you're going to do with the the ones you have left, giving thought to them is nice as it allows you to plan for activities and make time for people that are important to you. However, one thing I have learned is, it is very important to be spontaneous, go with what life hands you. Just be prepared and make the most of it; spending time calculating how many weekends you have less takes precious time away from what you actually had and from those you want to spend that time with. Don't worry about the time left, worry about the time that is now and how you choose to spend it.

    ReplyDelete