The Rest of Your Life

"I used to shop this store all the time," my coworker said to a few of us sitting in the breakroom. She went on to say that a typical day might consist of her dropping her kids off at school, then a trip to the gym, or perhaps a manicure or facial was on the agenda. Then she'd lunch with her friends and do some shopping, finishing around the time the kids were ready to be picked up. "I never thought I'd work here."

She went on to describe vacations that she had taken, the upscale restaurants in our city she and her husband frequented. Then all that changed, when his business went south when the recession started. They moved to a smaller home and she went to work, and their lives are drastically different from what they used to be. And she's bitter about it.

She said that she thinks it would be better never to have lived that type of lifestyle, because then she wouldn't know what she was missing. "I guess this," she said, gesturing to our surroundings in the breakroom, "is going to be the rest of my life."

Yes. It is. This is the rest of her life. She has a lot of choices, a lot of directions she could move in, but going back to the "good old days" is simply not an option. This is the rest of my life, and yours, too. No matter how good or bad or mediocre the past was, all that really matters is what we do with what we have right now. We are not helpless victims. We have the power to make the kind of life we want. So, what are you doing the rest of your life?

Susan

"What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" written by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and Michel Legrand.