Middle Aged!

     Since I tend to approach issues primarily from a logical perspective, I researched the statistical prediction of my life expectancy, which was determined to be 77, meaning that my own personal “middle age” begins at age 38.5.  That statement just seemed wrong…very wrong…logic and statistical evidence be damned. My grandmother lived to age 90 and my grandfather to age 97, so I feel justified using them as a standard for my life expectancy, thus providing a mean of 93.5, making my middle age really to begin at 46.75…ah…much better. Using this same formula, middle age should last 23.75 years, with old age to begin at 70.12. This dictates that middle age begins for me just 13 years from now, which seems pretty soon.
  I expect my middle age years to be the best of my life. My youngest daughter will be graduating high school and starting her own journey into adulthood, and my oldest daughter will be well along on her journey. I imagine I may feel a little sad about our “empty nest”, but most likely I will feel more joy than sorrow. I very much look forward to my middle age years. I plan to use this time to travel the world, to see, learn, and experience different cultures.
The accomplishments I expect to have met by the onset of middle age are the same as what I hope to accomplish by then.  My main goal is to have properly prepared and raised my children to be well adjusted, productive members of society, who remain emotionally close to our family unit. Another goal I have and expect to achieve is to have helped grow our family construction business to the point where we will have a secure, comfortable economic situation for the middle age years and beyond. Additionally, I hope and expect to have furthered my education to the doctoral level.  Finally and most importantly, I hope and expect to have invested enough time, attention and love into my marriage that my husband and I continue to appreciate, value, honor, and enjoy each other as we grow into our old age years. Almost 9 years ago my husband sang the following song to me at our wedding ceremony before we exchanged vows, and I believe it sums up how we both feel about our future.
I wanna Grow Old With You
I wanna make you smile
Whenever you're sad
Carry you around when your arthritis is bad
All I wanna do, is grow old with you

I'll get you medicine when your tummy aches
Build you a fire if the furnace breaks
So, it could be so nice growing old with you,....

I'll miss you, Kiss you
Give you my coat when you are cold
Need you
Feed you
Even let you hold the remote control.

So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink
Put you to bed when you've had too much to drink
Oh I could be the man that grows old with you
I wanna grow old with you.