“X,” used as a verb can connote both rejection (i.e., to cross out) or acceptance (i.e., to indicate a choice, as in an election). We spend our life accepting, rejecting, making choices. We are, according to existential philosophers, the sum total of our choices. That can be a pretty confusing total of acceptances and rejections for an elder. What are some of the acceptances and rejections of my own sum total of choices?

• The rejection of the dream of becoming a writer at a young age.
• The acceptance of that role now, as a septuagenarian.
• The rejection of youthful agnosticism.
• The acceptance of myself as a spiritual being.
• The rejection of reading male authors as a mid-adult in favor of female authors.
• The acceptance of seeking a balance of male and female authors later in life, reading the book for its content and importance, not the gender of the writer.
• The rejection of leisure time spent enjoying fiction for many years as an academic and professional.
• The acceptance of an easing of the pressures of professional life and a return to reading for pleasure.
• The rejection of life as a Spanish teacher as I became a gifted specialist and professor of gifted education. 
• The recent acceptance and return to teaching Spanish online to gifted youth and lovin’ it.
• The rejection of the thought of aging, thinking I would rather pass before old age had me in its grips.
• The acceptance of aging as a joyful and spiritual process.

What are some of the acceptances and rejections of your sum total of choices?

Photo by Maria Iglesias Barroso on Flickr: https://goo.gl/xpABzh (CC BY-NC 2.0).

This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z (2016)  Challenge. Click here. to see all of the blogs in the A to Z Challenge