Sixth Grade

I grew up in West Lafayette Indiana and went to grade school
at Cumberland Elementary. Mr. Tweedy was our 6th grade
teacher and one day in English class he gave us this
writing assignment; imagine you can be any age you would
like to be and write a description about being that age.
Or something to that effect. I have no recollection of what
I myself actually wrote, but I do remember Mr. Tweedy
reading aloud to us in class the paper written by one of my
fellow students. It went sorta like this...
If I could be any age I wanted to be I would be 90 years
old. I could sleep in as late as I wanted and have breakfast
brought to me in bed. Every afternoon I would have wheelchair
races with my friends in the nursing home and watch TV every
evening...
Everyone in the class was amused and impressed! It stills
strikes me as remarkably creative for a 6th grade kid to have
such insight. I don't remember what I wrote about, but I
remember his paper.
How awesome it would be if we really DID look forward,
with hope and good expectations, to growing old. I think we
would probably all live our lives with greater care and
healthier habits if we could claim such positive dreams of
our futures.