Life

Art and I went to a wedding in March. I saw friends I hadn't seen or spoken to in 17 years. When I told one friend that I was now a mom to 4 kids, a lunch lady, and lived on a small farm in the country he laughed so hard he almost fell off his chair.

I don't blame him.

If you'd have known me 20 years ago (and some of you may have) you'd have never imagined I'd be where I am today. I would never have imagined it.

20 years ago (which, incidentally is when I graduated from high school) I would have told you with some degree of certainty that I would be working either in the theater or as a therapist. I would have been married for 10 years or so and would have 2 children at the most. I would live in city of at least 300,000 people or more. I would be well traveled. I would frequent the theater, ballet, symphony, and museums. I would live in an apartment or townhouse with my white collar husband who shared my love of literature and our private school/home schooled children. We would be urban and edgy and I would never, ever wear pink. I had big dreams. I had some fairly certain ideas about what my life should be like.

I was dead wrong.

And I couldn't be happier.

I've not been to the theater in almost 20 years. I don't remember the last museum I went to that was not part of a field trip. My 4 children have never seen a ballet, eaten quinoa, or ridden the subway. They've never had a swim class, an art class, a music class, or been to a Shakespeare play. 90% of their wardrobes come from Walmart, the thrift store, or are hand-me-downs. My husband works a blue collar job. He hates to read. He would live outside if he could and not in an L.L. Bean catalogue way but in a Duck Dynasty way. He makes me laugh every day. And the closest I get to therapy is listening to my Junior High kitchen workers tell me about their love lives.

It occurred to me today that my life is so much richer than I'd ever imagined. I spent an hour this morning reading about the Russian ballet. We had carry out pizza from a gas station for lunch and it was really good. I ate a slices of pecan pie I made for Thanksgiving. We drove 6 miles down the road with a miniature donkey in the back of our van. Then we drove the same 6 miles with a miniature horse in the back of the van.

My life may not be full of the things I thought would make me happy, but it is full of things that do make me happy. And it is so much more interesting that I could have ever imagined it would be.