We used to talk so much about how we would grow old together. We would lay on paddle boards, floating in the lake just far enough off the shore that it felt like we were observing the tiny people on land. We would drift by the huge mansions with their sprawling yards and grandiose gardens, and laugh about how each one had a handful of simple deck chairs on the edge of the lake, so the owners could sit and watch the water. 

We would talk about how, when we’re 25, we’ll have graduated from our dream colleges, and move back to our tiny town. You would have gone to Notre Dame; I still didn’t know where I was going but I knew it would be great. We would have been so smart that we would graduate two years early and be out of college by 20. Our childhood crushes would fall in love with us and we would marry them, and we would have lots and lots of pets.

We would become rich, and buy matching mansions on the lake, where we would have a zipline from your house to mine so we could be with each other in seconds. We would have deck chairs on the water, where we would sit and laugh and talk about when we were 12. We would also have a huge trampoline next to our huge pool so that we could jump into the water. We would buy a beautiful boat, and jet skis so we could fly across the lake, but we would always keep our paddle boards so we could float and talk. 

We would never leave, because our little town had everything we would ever need. We would only go on vacation when we went on our ski trips every winter, where we would have a slopeside house that we could stay in, with our own ski lift to the top of the mountain. We would also take a trip to Europe, where you could see all the places you’ve always wanted to see, and then we would return home to our mansions on the lake.

By 25, we would have been living the lives of our dreams. 

Now, we’re 64. We don’t have mansions on the lake, we did not marry our childhood crushes, we did not graduate college in two years, and we did not buy beautiful boats to sail the lake in. 

However, we won the lottery a few days ago. We won 25 million dollars that we will split evenly. We are going to get our houses on the lake, and we are going to move back to our hometown, and we are going to go on ski trips every year and hope we don’t break our now aging bones. We will go to Europe, where we will tour and shop and pretend to be young again. We may not have reached our dream at 25, but we are going to reach it now.