Thankfulness
-
- January
- 3
So, I was reading the news online one evening last week and saw Apple stock reached $200 a share. I shared this tidbit with my husband, who said, “You should have let me buy those 100 shares when it was $12.� He was referring to the time in the late 1990s when Apple was in the doldrums. This was before the iPod and before the Apple Store became the coolest retailer at the mall. It was also during days of eTrade and the online do-it-yourself stock-buying frenzy that went out of style after the dot-com bust. It was around that time that he did say he wanted to invest $1,200 in Apple stock. I didn’t think it was a good idea, and I persuaded him not to do it. Well, he did a quick calculation in his head and figured his $1,200 investment would be worth $20,000 now if I hadn’t said no. Then, remembering that Apple had split, noted that it would actually be worth $40,000. I felt sick inside hearing these numbers. That $40,000 could be part of a down payment on a bigger home with a backyard for Pumpkin. It could help pay for Pumpkin’s college education in 16 years  even Harvard, thanks to interest compounding. It could even mean I could have chosen to stay home for a couple of years while Pumpkin is still little. It would have been wonderful. But when I turned back to my computer screen, I saw another headline. This one was about a 7-year-old girl who received a cute purple and pink bicycle for Christmas. She went outside to ride it for the first time and was struck and killed by a driver who didn’t see her. It was the most amazing juxtaposition for me. On one hand, we missed a windfall. But on the other hand, our little girl was upstairs sleeping and safe. My momentary twinge over the lost money was gone. I just felt so full of gratitude that the only thing that really matters is ours.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 1:24 am by Julie Moran Alterio.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
This is beautiful, Julie. You should write a blog called The Cost of Living!
I have my own Apple-worthy regrets. I’ve actually consoled myself by thinking, we never really know if the things we want will bring us joy or misfortune, as was the case with the girl with the bicycle. I once wrote a similar story about a high-school senior whose parents had just bought him a new Honda.
Anyway, before you think I’ve become this wise-beyond-my-years person at peace with the universe, I should mention that my regrets always manage to creep back in.
BTW, I never got to say goodbye to Steve C. I you see this, Steve, I haven’t forgotten about you.