Consider the Alternative

My great grandmother is 94. She has lead an interesting life in her near century. What that life has provided is an insight about aging and living life. Ever since her 80th birthday she has made the same comment whenever anyone asks her about having another birthday. She says

"It beats the alternative."

Since death is the alternative to getting older I figure the same applies at any age - even 30.

I started thinking about people who don't make it to 30. Many of us have a childhood friend or acquaintance that didn't make it to 30. If not we've all heard about some celebrity or musician who didn't make it to 30. Think of some of the most famous:

Jimi Hendrix

Kurt Cobain

Janis Joplin

James Dean

Aaliyah

Heath Ledger

Tupac Shakur

Brandon Lee

Jim Morrison

River Phoenix

Selena

AMONG OTHERS - in the music, sports and entertainment fields.

Children and young adults die young all the time. When it isn't in our face or close to us, we tend to forget that it could happen to anyone. By stressing about turning 30 we are forgetting that we should appreciate each and every birthday if only for the reason that we are still alive to stress about it.

Instead of panicking about turning 30 and not having everything we want in life, or dwelling on what we wish were different; let's try a different approach. Let's choose to be thankful for what we do have, how far we've come since first striking out on our own or how lucky we are that we still have a chance to do and be more.

I don't care who you are now or who you've been before - celebrating another birthday means one GREAT thing. It means that we get to live another day. And each day we exist on this planet we have the chance to do something awesome.