Me and this life

michiamocristina:

An 87 Year Old College Student Named Rose

The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t already know.
I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned round to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me
with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, “Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I’m eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?”

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.

“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked.

She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids…”

“No seriously,” I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.We became instant friends. Every day for the
next three months, we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this “time machine”
as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and
she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us. She was
introduced and stepped up to the podium.

As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor. Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I’ll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell
you what I know.”

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, “We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop
playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day.

You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it!There is a huge difference between growing
older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old.

If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change.
Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those
with regrets.”

She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Rose.”

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives.

At the year’s end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died
peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s
never too late to be all you can possibly be .When you finish reading this, please send this peaceful word of advice to your friends and family, they’ll really enjoy it!

These words have been passed along in loving memory of ROSE.

REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS
OPTIONAL.

We make a Living by what we get, We make a Life by what we give.

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iknowmylifesucks:

+15 °C, Spanish wear caps, gloves and winter coats, Finns are sunbathing.
+10 °C, French desperately try to get their central heating on. Finns plant flowers.
+5 °C, Italian cars won’t start. Finns drive with convertibles.
0 °C, Pure water freezes. Water in river Vantaa thickens a bit.
−5 °C, First people are found frozen in California. Finnish midsummer festival ends.
…

−10 °C, Scottish turn the heat on in their houses. Finns start to use long-sleeve shirts.
−20 °C, Swedes stay indoors. Finns are having last barbeque before winter.
−30 °C, Half of the Greek people have frozen to death. Finns start to dry their laundry indoors.
−50 °C, Polar bears evacuate North Pole. Finnish army starts it’s winter training.
−70 °C, Siberian people are moving to Moscow. Finns are furious since the Koskenkorva booze can’t be stored outdoors anymore.
−273 °C, Absolute zero. Finns admit that it is quite cold outside.
−300 °C, Hell freezes over. Finland wins the football World Cup.

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d-aisy-vibe:

This is my little brother Alex, he is 13 years old.
He was born with 5 holes in his heart, at the time the doctors didn’t realise that, they only told us there was one, so when they went to fix it his body couldn’t handle it and he had a stroke, he was legally dead for 5 minutes. the doctors told us that he would be fine and that the stroke wouldn’t affect him. they were wrong. 
Alex is now developmentally delayed, it took him till he was 5 to learn how to stand and until he was 7 to walk, he still cannot talk, go to the toilet by himself, dress himself, feed himself, do anything himself really. 

When he was 5 we found out that he had severe scoliosis which means that his spine was slowly twisting and that if we didn’t do anything it would eventually crush all his internal organs and he would die. We quickly got him wearing all different kinds of braces to help prevent his spine from twisting anymore he wore them for 365 days a year for 6 years. We then found out that they weren’t working.
About 6 months after hearing this news we learnt that there was a brand new procedure being trialled which included putting a metal rod in his spine and over time slowly lengthening it and would hopefully eventually straighten up his spine. we were over joyed with the news that maybe one thing in Alex’s life would go right. when they were doing the surgery they found that he had very soft bones unlike anything they had ever seen before however they went ahead with the surgery. it took alex 8 hours to wake up after the surgery and during those hours it was the most emotionally stressful time i had ever experienced, the doctors told us that he might not wake up
Fortunately he did. The surgery was a success and after a couple weeks in hospital our little man returned home.
We thought everything was going to be good now thats until we found out the he has to have another heart surgery because he is out growing the heart he already has. then about two weeks ago we found out that the metal rod in his spine was failing and that it was slowly undoing itself to the point where it could completely come out and pierce his skin.
Alex is having emergency surgery tomorrow and the doctors don’t know whats going to happen, they dont know how to help him anymore, they are slowly giving up just like all his others doctors have
to tell you the truth this all really scares me, the thought of loosing my little brother, my bestfriend, my hero i cant even bare to think about it
and still with all this going on his is little life, he still continues to be the happiest person i have ever met, the person who makes friends with anyone and inspires everyone he has ever met. he has the ability to make anyone fall in love with him with just one look
I love you more than the world Alex and i pray that everything will go okay tomorrow. <3

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israelfacts:

11-month-old Omar Mashrawi who was killed in Gaza by an Israeli strike yesterday.

@pdanahar

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