Milestones

I read this morning that on this day in 1968, One Life to Live premiered on ABC. You would think I would have known that. After all, in my time on the show, I went to numerous anniversary parties (including a black tie one just a month after I started there), worked on countless anniversary shows, was part of multiple anniversary cake pictures. But reading it this morning actually caught me by surprise. So much for the power of a milestone...

We come upon many milestones in our lives--family occasions, work accomplishments--all things so large that it seems that we will remember them forever, that they will literally create a dot-to-dot of our life history. But as I made my way through my day, and the OLTL anniversary faded into the background of more immediate needs and concerns, I began to realize that though milestones may create an outline of what our lives have been, it is the not-so-milestone moments that fill in the outline. I may have been at One Life to Live for many anniversaries, but it is the control room days and the friendships and the learning and growing that make up what I remember. I may have celebrated many family occasions, but it is the day to day interactions with my children that fill me up.

So I am proud and happy to have been a part of a show that lasted so long, and to be reminded of its anniversary, even now when it is just a piece of history. And I am grateful for milestones. But I am even happier for all the tiny moments that come in between.