A Charmed Life…

Recently someone told me I had a charmed life. They did not sound all that happy for me. No one had ever said that to me before and I was instantly curious about all that charm I evidently possessed. So I inquired, "Do tell me more! How is my life charmed, from your point of view?"

Here is the response: "Well, you do not have any problems and everything you try works for you."

Oh boy.

If that is the definition of my charmed life, well, I'm feeling like I lost something I never knew I possessed. I have plenty of problems and I fail and have failed at every single thing I have undertaken in life. I have failed as a wife and mother, a sister and daughter, a friend. I have failed as a granddaughter. I have failed as an employee, an employer, I have even failed to be a particularly good enemy at times (although sometimes I rock that one).

To be honest, a lot of this failing is the result of my own immaturity and lack of wisdom. For example, I felt like a failure when my pre-med chemistry grade my first semester of college knocked me out of the market for med school. At least, that's how I thought of it back then.

Today, I recognize that I had choices - I could have retaken the class. More true and to the point, I really did not want to go to med school. If I had, I probably would have worked harder to overcome that Chemistry grade. I cannot really count a sub-par grade in Chemistry as a failure (especially since I switched it to pass/fail and avoided taking a hit to my GPA).

When my college boyfriend cheated on me and broke up with me without actually telling me, I considered that a failure. But it turns out, it was the best thing that ever happened to me because I ended up marrying the best man in the whole wide world - 43 years ago and counting.

So evaluating charm and failure is tricky. Tomorrow, more on failure -aren't you excited?