I am 47 years old and I know there are some things that are just OVER. Some are easy to get past and give up; some are a little more difficult and disappointing.

Ten things I know are over:

1. Any hope of being skinny — or at least not fat. I exercise but not enough, and I eat well inconsistently. I can’t seem to harness the good habits I had for a short time a while ago. So I just keep trying and hope the health benefits I seem to be getting make up for not looking good in a swim suit.

2. Education like it used to be. Everything is different. The kids. The curriculum. The teachers. The administrators. The parents. When I started teaching, I felt like there was a good balance between all the elements listed. But now the balance has shifted to kids who don’t see any value in education, curriculum that is cumbersome for students AND teachers, teachers who see education on a self-destructive path but are too frightened of retribution or too beaten down to do anything about it, administrators who are either too punitive or totally dis-involved with what is happening with their schools, and parents who think teachers do everything wrong and their kids who do everything right.

3. My love for Bon Jovi. I used to be a rabid fan, but too many plays of “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Wanted” have killed it. There are a few songs I still enjoy, but generally speaking, Bon Jovi holds little interest for me.

4. Windows. At least in my home. I’m forced to use them at work, but I will be damned if a computer that runs Windows will ever be used in my home again.

5. Babies — at least my own. That one has been a goner for quite a while. After I had Becky, i had only one brief moment in time where I thought having another baby would be a good idea. That quickly passed. One and done. I stopped when I knew I hit the jackpot 🙂

6. Regular pop. It is way, way, way too sweet. Maybe someday I’ll be able to give up pop altogether, but until Diet Coke from McDonald’s tastes crappy, I’m still drinking the diet pop!

7. Having a cat. I had to put my last cat down less than a year ago. She was 17 years old. We got her when Becky was 2 years old. I miss having a cat, but I’ve got 2 dogs who keep me occupied. Once they’re gone, I’m probably done with pets altogether. That will be weird, because I’ve had a pet pretty much my entire life.

8. Reading regular books. Well, maybe this isn’t completely over, but it gets closer all the time. I don’t deny loving going to the book store and flipping through the pages of a book, but I read so much so often, that it’s so much more convenient to use digital books. The times where I feel like I really need a traditional book are getting fewer and farther between.

9. Life without social networking. Now that I have things like Facebook and Twitter in my life, I won’t live without it. I know that social networking gets such scorn from so many people (“Everyone is glued to their phones, nobody knows how to communicate with each other anymore”), but I can’t say enough good things about it. Facebook and Twitter have given me the opportunity to keep in close contact with my daughter and keep up with her life while she’s away at college, and it has let me stay in contact with friends from high school and college as well as family members who I would have lost connections with had it not been for social networking. Sorry haters, I love it and it has allowed me to maintain some meaningful relationships that I would have had it not been for the Internet/social networking.

10. Certain relationships. Ive got a few that are just over and as many that are over the way they used to be. Not naming names. But some people I just don’t want to have contact with anymore (or they don’t want to have contact with me), and some people our relationships have changed — sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Some relationships were weak and now they’re strong. Some were toxic and needed to end or be changed. Some started out really good and turned sour. Some were my fault. Some were not.

So, in the words of Eric Church — it’s just over when it’s over, ain’t it, baby, ain’t it?