Hi handsome. My name is Rose. Excellent reading!!!

The  first day of school our professor introduced  himself and challenged us to get to know someone  we didn't already know.

I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

I turned around to find a wrinkled,  little old lady beaming up at me with a
smile  that lit up her entire being..
 
She said,  'Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven  years old. Can I
give you a hug?'
 
I  laughed and enthusiastically responded, 'Of  course you may!' and she
gave me a giant  squeeze..
 
'Why are you in college at  such a young, innocent age?' I asked.
 
She jokingly replied, 'I'm here to meet  a rich husband, get married, and
have a couple  of kids...'
 
'No seriously,' I asked. I  was curious what may have motivated her to be
taking on this challenge at her age.
 
 
'I  always dreamed of having a college education and  now I'm getting one!'
she told me.
 
After  class we walked to the student union building  and shared a chocolate
milkshake.
 
We  became instant friends. Every day for the next  three months we would
leave class together and  talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening
to this 'time machine' as she shared her wisdom  and experience with me..
 
Over the course  of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she  easily made
friends wherever she went. She loved  to dress up and she reveled in the
attention  bestowed upon her from the other students. She  was living it up.
 
 
At the end of the  semester we invited Rose to speak at our  football
banquet. I'll never forget what she  taught us. She was introduced and
stepped up to  the podium. As she began to deliver her
prepared  speech, she dropped her three by five cards on  the floor.
 
Frustrated  and a little embarrassed she leaned into the  microphone and
simply said, 'I'm sorry I'm so  jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this
whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech  back in order so let me
just tell you what I  know.'
 
As we laughed she cleared her  throat and began, ' We do not stop playing
because we are old; we grow old because we stop  playing.
 
There are only four secrets to  staying young, being happy, and achieving
success. You have to laugh and find humor every  day. You've got to have a
dream. When you lose  your dreams, you die.
 
We have so many  people walking around who are dead and don't  even know it!
 
 
There is a huge difference  between growing older and growing up.
 
If  you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for  one full year and don't
do one productive thing,  you will turn twenty years old. If I am
eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a  year and never do anything I
will turn  eighty-eight.
 
Anybody! Can grow older.  That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea
is to grow up by always finding opportunity  in change. Have no regrets.
 
The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but  rather for things
we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.
 
She concluded her speech by courageously  singing 'The Rose.'
 
She challenged each  of us to study the lyrics and live them out in  our
daily lives. At the year's end Rose finished  the college degree she had
begun all those  months ago.
 
One week after graduation  Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
 
Over  two thousand college students attended her  funeral in tribute to the
wonderful woman who  taught by example that it's never too late to be all
you can possibly be.
 
When you finish  reading this, please send this peaceful word of  advice to
your friends and family, they'll  really enjoy it!
 
These words have been  passed along in loving memory of ROSE.
 
REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY.  GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.

We make a living by what  we get. We make a Life by what we give.
 
God promises a safe landing, not a calm  passage. If God brings you to it,
He will bring  you through it.
 
Pass this message on to 7  people. You  will receive a miracle tomorrow (
if you don't think  so....look out your window when you wake in the morning
and think about it!
 
If  you choose not, then you refuse to bless someone  else.
 
'Good friends are like stars.....  ....You don't always see them, but you
know they  are always  there.'