All Done With My Twenties…
November 9, 2010
I turned 30 yesterday.
Like most people, I found more significance in this particular birthday than in the typical annual tally. In truth, it seems like the kind of thing that would ordinarily depress me – I’d go down the whole “passage of youth/encroaching mortality” route, and be sulky and maudlin for days.
But I think I’d like to try something different this time.
I suppose that, up to this point, some part of me has always considered itself under construction. As long as I perceived myself to be young, I allowed myself to stay in a fairly passive state, soaking up knowledge and experience without concern about how or when or if I’d ever apply the lessons.
Well, I’ve decided to look at thirty not merely as the end of my youth, but as the jumping-off point for the realization of the modest dreams and ambitions I do possess. One might consider it a preemptive strike against regret.
Accordingly, and in keeping with my character, I made a list - a list of things whose place on the docket just got moved up from “someday” to “right fucking now”. After considering entries like “escape from a maximum security prison” and “choke out a velociraptor”, I decided that perhaps I was being a little too ambitious. There followed a second list, composed of such picayune aspirations as “always remember to wear pants when going to the mailbox” and “don’t be the one to teach Ezekiel and Ryan’s baby its first ethnic slur”. Finally, with my third draft, I believe that I have found a pretty good balance between ambition and attainability. I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about the first couple of items I have to check off this year.
