36

I’m 36 today.

Wait, how did that happen? Wasn’t it just yesterday I turned 16 and got my driver’s licence? Geez. That was 2 decades ago. The scale has officially tipped towards 40.

The other day I read an article about the names given to Britain’s new Princess Charlotte of Cambridge. Charlotte Elizabeth Diana bears the name of her late grandmother. In the article the writer casually mentioned Princess Diana died at age 36. What?!

36. She was 36, people!!!!

I’m not sure why I found that so unsettling. Perhaps because in 1997 my 18 year old mind couldn’t grasp just how young Diana was when she passed away. Now, I’m sitting on the threshold of 36 and can’t imagine my life stopping at this age. My life still has lots of life left in it.

36 is not significant. It’s not monumental like turning 30 or 40. My friends aren’t going to pile in my car and ask me to whisk them around town like we did when I turned 16. I’m not going to put on my adult pants and vote for the first time like I did when I turned 18. And I’m certainly not going to get smashed like some 21ers. I’m not a let’s-get-smashed kind of gal so why would I start at 36.

Nope, I’m just going to turn 36. On the outside there won’t be a lot of fanfare or pomp, probably just some cherry pie and Bazbeaux’s pizza. However, in my heart 36 is special. It marks a decade of motherhood in my life. A season of pregnancy and birth, exhaustion and self-sacrifice, and growth of both mother and child. 36 signifies that my oldest is almost ten and my baby is nearly four. I’m coming out of the haze of raising small children. The fog is lifting. My brain is snapping back into action and my soul is stretching out of a ten year old cocoon and looking forward to what 36, and the subsequent years, might hold for me.

36 reminds me that it would be easy to simply plod through life, never taking risks or exerting myself. But I don’t want that. I want to experience life’s challenges and possibilities. 36 might not be significant to most but it represents a new era for me: new endeavors, new roles, new paths, new risks. I’m excited and full of anticipation.

Cheers to turning 36.