Celebrating the Ordinary

This morning, I was reading my Realtor Magazine. One of the features was "30 under 30". They were spotlighting realtors who had accomplished a lot of career ladder climbing and were under the age of 30. There were people who were in their mid twenties, yet principal broker of a fairly successful company. There were agents who were selling over 600 properties a year. I will say that they had some really impressive accomplishments.

Part of me was a little jealous. I originally got my real estate license at 19, and I know that if I had wanted to, I could have been one of those 30 under 30. A few years ago, of course!

Instead, I chose a different path. I chose to become a mother. While there are mothers who are occasionally spotlighted as extraordinary mothers, they usually are doing superhuman feats, such as adopting 20 special needs children. I haven't seen anyone get a medal, or a spotlight in a magazine because they stayed up all night with a vomiting child, changing the sheets on their bed 4 times before sunrise. Even when she manages to be somewhat civil to those around her the next day, even though she would like to rip out their tongue and stuff it up their nose, she doesn't get an award. To me, that was a lot tougher than closing on a deal with a difficult client.

I guess we do get Mother's Day. And we get cute drawings of ourselves from our kids. We get sticky kisses, and chocolaty handprints on our pants.

So, I guess it is fair. I'd rather have a sticky kiss from a small person who thinks I am the greatest, most beautiful woman who ever lived than my picture in a magazine any day.