I’ve turned 40 which seems odd since when I read a newspaper and see the names of people mentioned 40 almost always seems old to me.
I’m about as successful as your average 17-year-old which is to say I’m still finding my way in the world and wondering why everything I want has yet to be served to me on a silver platter.
My teachers always told us we were going to be the first generation of Americans to do worse than our parents.
I’ve never owned a new car, only could afford to buy a home at 35, and have nowhere near the income or the savings of baby boomers. Apparently my teachers were right or they purposely set out to ensure we would embrace a self-fulfilling philosophy of failure or mediocrity.
My doctor said he had no plans to examine my prostate since there is no family history of singers who love show tunes.
My wife is 12 years younger than me so she keeps me young. When she was in kindergarten learning to glue macaroni to a plate I was a freshman in college studying communications and learning to glue macaroni to a plate.
In my 40 years on the planet I remember…
my parents taking me on adventures in the house because we couldn’t afford to vacation.
my mother making Halloween costumes out of oaktag and construction paper.
putting a boom box close to the TV speaker to “record” my favorite TV shows.
images of the Vietnam War on the TV in the 70s but not realizing it would affect my economic future.
our first VCR.
our first home video game system.
learning DOS commands even in college before Windows.
going to the library to look up information in a book.
thinking the Internet was nothing more than chat rooms.
the big Internet improvement was provided by AOL.
the sounds of a dial up modem.
i’ve been far happier in my 30s than in my 20s.
I’m looking forward to my 40s when I hope to care less about what other people think and more about what I feel.