Yesterday I thanked my girlfriends for being generous with their compliments on my post, “Thank you girls”, I wrote. One of my friends responded back, “No, Thank you, for still calling us girls!” I smiled, and pictured all of us in our 70s, and I was certain that I would still call us girls for we would never get old or would we?
The answer required time-travel into the future. So I got my precious crystal ball out of the closet, and muttered the magic words- “Abracadabra, Take me into the future where old is gray !!”
As the words came out of my mouth, the images started to appear on the ball. I could see way ahead into my future-
I gazed at the crystal ball as the pictures turned clear. “Who are those cute looking hotties?” I wondered at the group of girls seated around a table. It was me and my college friends seated in a restaurant. We all have some gray hair, wrinkles—some more gray than the others—and few of us with glasses. To clarify ‘glasses’ means both the eyeglasses as well as wine glasses. I belong to the glasses group:-) One of my friends still maintained long dark hair with fewer lines on the face. “Had to be a dye and botox combo”, I thought!
I looked at my girlfriends faces intensely. Though mellowed, we still seem to have chunks of our college personalities intact— some little more serious and reserved, sarcastic ones, drama queens, witty types, the graceful and the fashionables. We seem to be sharing jokes and also engaging in some serious conversations.
Suddenly, all the girls looked at the same direction, and what do I see on the crystal ball! Hallelujah! A bunch of boys with gray hair and few with shiny scalps sitting across from our table. No, no they do not look like our husbands. But never mind, I am glad that even behind those glasses our eyes could appreciate good looks and then return back to our conversation.
Amidst the chit chat, I saw few of us leaving the table multiple times and walking towards the ‘Ladies room’. One of my friends walked slowly with a cane. The seated ones flaunted their functioning bladder. But none of these actions disturbed the fervour and involvement on the table. As food was laid, some girls popped pills with a glass of water and again joined the chatter.
Must be something hilarious as I saw myself crack up, and then suddenly I saw something fly up in the air. Oh no! my dentures. I picked up the fallen denture from the floor like the sloths in the movie ‘Zootopia’, and adjusted it inside my mouth. Watching the scene made me emotionally intense as thoughts of utmost social embarrassment filled my mind. But then I saw myself giving a toothless smile, and my friends joined.
At that moment, I withdrew myself from the crystal ball.
I was content that we girls could accept and find humour in the limitations that life would put forth. Indeed, our future showed all the signs of age creeping in- our bodies fragile, faded memories, slow movements- but with all that fun inside our souls, we will always remain girls.
Cheers!!
Photo credit: mikaku via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
Photo credit: april-mo via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA