This is (almost) 40
Next week, I turn 40. My wife asked me over the weekend how I feel about that - and at the time I didn't have a good answer. I don't remember exactly what I told her but it was somewhat wishy-washy and probably something to do with "I don't feel old" - which is true. While the number itself is a significant milestone, I don't feel like it represents anything truly ominous about the rest of my life.
But now that I am 7 days out, I thought it might be worth blogging through it. I re-read Brandon's blog about turning 40 late last year and thought a similar type of post might be a good idea - especially since he and I seem to click on a few ideas. This one is more reflective of the last 10 years than it is looking forward, but I might do a little of that too.
On turning 30
Ten years ago was the first "major" milestone of my life - turning 30. My wife planned a huge bash for me (it wasn't a surprise party, I was involved in it): we rented some ice at our local sportsplex and had a curling party. Most of us there had curled before, but some hadn't. It was a lot of fun. Later we went to a local brewpub owned by a hockey player (Big Rig) and I actually got to MEET Chris Phillips1. Turns out he was celebrating his birthday as well, as his is a few days later (March 9th, according to Wikipedia).
One thing that stands out about my 30th birthday is how much alcohol was involved. That was definitely a large part of my life - beer, craft brews, etc. Looking at my life now - it's so completely different.
I've been alcohol-free for 5 years. I've written about it plenty and I'm going to release a book of essays that will talk about it again so I'm going to leave that alone for now. But it just strikes me as amazing that alcohol was such a big part of the celebration of turning 30, but now it's just...not a big deal at all.
On turning 35
A weird birthday - another milestone I suppose, if you're counting 5 year intervals. Truthfully I don't remember what we did for this birthday. It was 2019, and the early stages of COVID lockdowns; so it's 100% likely we didn't go out anywhere. But at this point in my life alcohol was still a thing, until it wasn't.
November 2019 was when I had my first seizure, and would eventually be diagnosed with epilepsy. Again - I've talked about it plenty, so I'm going to leave it there. But as far as milestone ages go, 35 was a pretty significant one, in retrospect.
Future goals
What am I looking forward to now that half my life is over? (I kid.)
Well. Next week in particular I'm tagging along with my wife on a work trip out west. That's going to be fun. I took the entire week off, so no working from the hotel room for me. We're going to rent a car, because it doesn't seem like there's a lot we can do in walking distance. Not like a couple of weeks ago when we walked almost everywhere.
I'll be honest...I can't think of any future / long term goals right now. I have things I want to focus on this year: completing my essay collection, setting up my personal website (oh hey, that's done!), expand my photography skills, that kind of thing. But beyond that? I don't know. I'm a kind of "one year at a time" kind of person.
That's all I got right now. Maybe next week (Tuesday) I'll have more to say about turning 40.
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I have a photo of the two of us together, and I thought about sharing it - but when I looked it up on Facebook it's such a terrible picture. Underexposed, blurry. I can't bring myself to share it, sorry.↩