Mary Ann's 60

Following closely on the heels of Leslie, Henry and Mahlon, last week I completed my sixtieth year. Life is good.

I remember my life in phases related to where I lived and what I was learning. Preschool years in the central Adirondacks, school years in far northern NY on Lake Champlain, college in Albany, grad school here at Cornell, arguably the crown jewel of the Finger Lakes.

Okay, so 36 of those 60 years have been spent here in Ithaca. But the learning really spiked after grad school. I started learning about plants, birds and evolution from Bill. I married and spent a year in Germany. I built a house and started raising kids. Along the way I raised chickens, geese, turkeys, rabbits, sheep and a horse. I learned to spin and weave and to handle a camera with confidence. I took an accounting class and returned to an office environment where I re-learned the ins and outs of copiers, multiline phones and office politics.

A few things from pre-Ithaca days have affected my live in big ways. All my formal training in music and religion were from those years near Lake Champlain. And my foundation in computer use is from a post college year in Albany.

Life goes on. Now as an elected local official I've learned more about my town in four years than in the first thirty-two years I lived here. When I built the house, I learned about wells and septic systems. Now I'm well versed in municipal water and wastewater treatment. I've learned about road maintenance, dog control, cell towers, stormwater runoff mitigation, riparian buffer zones and volunteer emergency services (not necessarily in that order.)

I say again, life is good.