Getting older, I’ve decided, is a gift.

I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometimes despair over my body, the lack of abs, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. Often I'm taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks more like my mom than me!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends for a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 80's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... they, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. It's okay; I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when someone suffers, or even when somebody's pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So yeah, I like being older. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be.

And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)