Today is the day I graduated from college 38 years ago. That doesn’t seem possible, but I know it’s true, cause I was there…

I know it’s also true that time waits for no man (or woman), and that my years still among the living are now less than the years I’ve lived. I don’t mean to be morbid here, it’s just that I’ve spent far too much time at funerals and memorials the past six months, and it has given me pause for reflection.

So let me ask you this: If your life were over today, what would you want mentioned in your eulogy? Birth to death, what are the pivotal points that molded you and guided you from milestone to milestone?

There are the biggie turning points, of course: marriage, divorce, the birth of children, lifetime achievement award presented at the Kennedy Center, getting your PhD in microbiology, winning the Nobel Prize for successfully mediating lasting peace in Middle East, being the first woman to walk in space, and so forth and so on.

But for those of us who haven’t done anything all that huge and earth-shattering, what would you want said about you when people gather to remember your life?

I’ve decided I can’t leave something this important to chance, and the only way I know it will be done right, is to write it myself.

And so I shall… in, say, 35 or 40 more years…