I Do Not Act Like Women My Age

My grandmother wanted to drive on the motorcycle for her last birthday. That was her wish since the age of eighteen, but she never had the chance to do so. The times were different then, and it wasn’t appropriate to see the woman driving on this machine. That is how my grandmother explains it. After saying her wish and blowing up the candles on her cake, we all laughed, thinking that granny didn’t mean it seriously.

Grandma, you’re too old for that.

Grandma, that’s not for you.

Grandma, everyone would laugh at it.

These are just some of the sentences I heard from my family at the time, but I didn’t want to accept them. I promised my grandma that I’d be waiting for her tomorrow in front of the house. My friend is a passionate engineer, and I knew I could count on him. We went to Grandma the next day, and she said it was the happiest day in her life. And then the grandmother said this:

-Times haven’t changed. They still look at me like I am strange.

I started to think about it and realized that it was so. People still believe that some things should be done only in the right years. They still look weird if we are thirty years old and wear a Disney dress. We are probably odd when we go down the slope in the park, even though we are forty years old.

I wondered how I behave, am I a WOMAN OF MY YEARS?

I’m 37 years old.

I know that time will pass very fast and I will already be forty. I’ve missed a lot of things because I got kids early and I’m not kidding about it. But I wanted to do it later. I didn’t do it because others said it was too late for that. Until this story with my granny happened. Then I started to change some things myself. I didn’t change myself, that was just being me again. Maybe it was just a late reaction, but who can tell when the time is right for some things.

I have to ask you, therefore:

When is the time to fall in love? Are there any years when love should happen?

Is there the right time to give birth to children?

Do I have to enroll in college after high school or is it wrong to decide to learn in some later years?

Is there a good time to tell a friend how much you love him?

Is there a good time to tell your mother to give you a break?

I  don’t think that anybody can answer me these questions. You cannot tell me that right love comes when I’m in my twenties or that I will give birth to my children when I am 25. No one can ever tell me that, and I can not even tell you. But I can say this:

It doesn’t matter what people around you think and does you think is it appropriate for your age, as long as these things make you happy. I know many married couples where a man is ten years older than a woman or vice versa. They don’t care about it. Also, I know many married couples where both men and women are of the same age, and it doesn’t make a difference.

My friend puts on makeup every day, and she is beautiful.

My other friend doesn’t put makeup, and she is beautiful.

I love cartoons. Every Saturday I go to the cinema with the kids and watch the movie. People think I’m doing it just because of them, but I do it for myself. I love them as much as they do. Is this wrong?

My daughter wears a cap with Minnie Mouse. And I have the same hat as she. People think that it’s nice and that we only carry it when we photograph and challenge the avalanche of beautiful comments. That’s not true. I love that character, and I want my husband to buy a chocolate bar on which this figure is the same as she buys for our baby. Is it wrong that a woman of my age likes “things for kids”? Does this make me a bad mother or a bad person? I wouldn’t say.

That’s why I’m no longer silent when I want something. I think life is just this one and no one else will live for us. We have it, and we are grateful for it. The small things that make us happier people don’t bother anyone and I don’t see the reason for condemnation. My grandmother is not the only person left with some unfulfilled wishes. If you have the option to fill it now: DO IT! If you can meet somebody’s desire – DO IT!

I’ve never seen my grandma happy as it was that day.

That is why I want my every day to be like that.

If I want to get down the slope in the park – I’ll do it. I’m not interested in what other parents say. Maybe in the seventies, I decided to dye my hair in green. If that’s what I want, I’ll do it.

If you are a parent, it doesn’t mean that you have to be so serious as you walk the road.

If you’ve been working for twenty years, it doesn’t mean you can not enjoy cartoons at home.

Release molds and breathe life!

What if you do not experience the years you dream about?

Maybe this is the last year of your life.

I don’t like to hear the sentence:

You do not behave like women of your age!

It doesn’t matter to me. What does that mean? Do we just have to wear midi skirts and wholly dressed gowns? We can not even think of shorts or dramatic makeup on our face, only because we have those years when it’s not appropriate.

Release stereotypes!

Let the grandmother drive on the motorcycle and be happy!

Let everybody live how they think they should and not WHEN.

Somebody once said:

“Fill the year with life and not the life for years.”

Let us be guided in our lives only by ourselves.