by Marilyn M. Lee

When I was 19 years old, I decided that I wanted to be that girl that when she dies, people would say at the funeral, “All this before she was 25!” and “All that before she was 30!” I never had any desire to travel. I never had any desire to do crazy things like sky diving or bungee jumping. Yet this one tiny goal I made demanded cool accomplishments, bragging rights if you will. This goal begged for a stellar life resume.

Never heard of a life resume before? Let me explain. A life resume is a list of all the things you have done in your life that you can present to Peter at those Pearly Gates and prove that you lived a pretty fantastic hundred years on earth. Hmmm…ok. Maybe not so much. In short, it is a list, physical or not, of the things you have accomplished in your life. It may be privately stored in a journal somewhere, or publicly announced over every social media outlet you can join. But everyone has one. Exciting or not, it’s there

Everyone’s life resume will be different. One thing you must remember when reviewing your life resume as you rock away slowly on your porch at year 80, never compare your resume to someone else’s. Never regret your resume. My goals are not yours. My bucket list items are completely opposite than yours. I was talking to someone the other day who wanted to visit all of the baseball parks in the U.S. before they passed on. Me? Not the hugest baseball fan, but I fully respect that goal. My bucket list included bungee jumping, which was checked off last year. While to me this is super exciting, suicidal would be another’s choice words for this activity.

So what do you want your life resume to read? No one will be interviewing you for a position in heaven based on your resume, but you most definitely have every right to brag about the things you’ve done with this life. At the end of your 101 years, will it read Mother of 5, Grandmother of 27? World’s best skydiver? World Traveler? Caretaker for the most needy of souls? What is life without goals, without a bucket list with check marks dotting the pages? We are only on this beautiful, majestic mound of dirt called Earth for a short of time. Don’t you want to make it awesome?

Sometimes, I get greedy. I wish for my life resume to be different and miles long. I see others with their lands and gold and travels under their belt, and I hungrily make a mental note of 50 more things I NEED to do to make my resume better. This is not realistic. Sometimes, I think that what others have that I lack, are examples of my failure. Then I step back and realize that, so far, my life resume is pretty good, definitely something to be proud of. I am now a year away from my first age goal, and I think I have done a pretty good job. I have many more things I need to achieve, many more goals I want to set, and miles to go before I am the world’s most exciting person. But, for now, my life resume is pretty decent. Is yours? If it makes you smile, then you can count that resume as award winning. Here’s to many more years on your life resume. When you die, have a life resume others can pull out and see just how amazing you were.