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Three Wishes
Challenge Response
From Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle:
October 5: Assuming at 75 your life is 3/4 over, what three things would you do in the last quarter that you have never done before? (I am an optimist. I’m 85 and expect to live to 100!!!)
Three things I’d like to do. Maybe it’s my age or stage of life, but for some reason, this prompt sent me into a reflective mood.
1. I would like to see all of my grandchildren graduate from high school — five down and three to go. The oldest of the youngest three, now a senior, graduates in 2026; the next in line comes two years later in 2028. And then there’s the baby, who is now eight years away from graduation.
When the youngest of my grandchildren was born, a friend my age had a granddaughter born a few months before mine. She said, “Nancy, I just realized we will be ninety when these little girls graduate from high school.”
That gave me pause. I believed it without checking her math. I later repeated it to my younger brother. He immediately said, “No, you won’t.”
“I won’t?” I answered, breathing a sigh of relief.
“No,” he said, “With her fall birthday, she’ll start school a year later — you’ll be ninety-one.”
