"You've never been out of college. You don't know what it's like out there. I've worked in the private sector, they expect results."
-Ghostbusters
Lord Lordy, I’m turning 40. OK, not really. I am turning 29 but damn it feels ancient. I suspect that you’ll never really feel your age. I’ve been about 19 the last 10 years. No, it isn’t a maturity issue, because I get to work, pay my bills and all the novel things adults do. In fact, I don’t even think farting is all that funny anymore. OK, I lie, a well timed fart is always funny. You get my point I hope? Age is just incredibly scary, because it does bring you closer to the unknown.
On the other hand, you also get to let your guard down a little. You don’t have to worry so much about what others think of you. This especially applies to your peers. There was a time we all lived and died by the whims of our friends. I say this as a former trench coat wearing NIN loving outcast. Like it or not, I cared a lot about who I considered to be my friends’ opinions of me. Now, not so much. I’ve been real blessed in this life to have some great friends and a lot of them even know me from a decade ago. We can look back on the past and laugh. You need people like that. Nothing is as much fun as having someone say “remember the time…” and then you laugh until you snort.
So take my advice… use sunscreen.
I think the best advice I can give you as an elder is to be true to yourself. There are lots of things you have control over. You can pick your college, your friends, your spouse, but when it is all said and done, the center core of who you are will always be there. I’m not saying that we are not capable of some amazing change, but you only need to take a cursory look at the people around you to see how very unhappy some of them are. Trying hard to escape from yourself will make you miserable. Just think of the Olsen Twins holding each other’s hair while they hark up lunch. Think of Michael Jackson making himself look like Diana Ross. In the end, you are who you are and all the effort you throw into changing that is usually in vain. So take a deep breath, look in the mirror and appreciate that you are the only you and to quote the newly liberated:
“That is a beautiful thing.”
-Ghostbusters
Lord Lordy, I’m turning 40. OK, not really. I am turning 29 but damn it feels ancient. I suspect that you’ll never really feel your age. I’ve been about 19 the last 10 years. No, it isn’t a maturity issue, because I get to work, pay my bills and all the novel things adults do. In fact, I don’t even think farting is all that funny anymore. OK, I lie, a well timed fart is always funny. You get my point I hope? Age is just incredibly scary, because it does bring you closer to the unknown.
On the other hand, you also get to let your guard down a little. You don’t have to worry so much about what others think of you. This especially applies to your peers. There was a time we all lived and died by the whims of our friends. I say this as a former trench coat wearing NIN loving outcast. Like it or not, I cared a lot about who I considered to be my friends’ opinions of me. Now, not so much. I’ve been real blessed in this life to have some great friends and a lot of them even know me from a decade ago. We can look back on the past and laugh. You need people like that. Nothing is as much fun as having someone say “remember the time…” and then you laugh until you snort.
So take my advice… use sunscreen.
I think the best advice I can give you as an elder is to be true to yourself. There are lots of things you have control over. You can pick your college, your friends, your spouse, but when it is all said and done, the center core of who you are will always be there. I’m not saying that we are not capable of some amazing change, but you only need to take a cursory look at the people around you to see how very unhappy some of them are. Trying hard to escape from yourself will make you miserable. Just think of the Olsen Twins holding each other’s hair while they hark up lunch. Think of Michael Jackson making himself look like Diana Ross. In the end, you are who you are and all the effort you throw into changing that is usually in vain. So take a deep breath, look in the mirror and appreciate that you are the only you and to quote the newly liberated:
“That is a beautiful thing.”
1 Comments:
Well I am not known to all of you but I am known to the writer of this Blog.
To keep an outlook of a young person is better than to be a soured, miserable old fart. You know the type one of those dried up old prunes, who can find fault with anything or anyone.
Maturity does not come with age.
There are some 10 year olds in this world, who have a more mature attitude to life than some World Leaders. As my late Grandmother would say, "If they want War put them in a field and let them [ The Leaders] fight it out"
To have life long friends is a special thing. A person in whom you can confide and know that you will never hear it back from another source. A person who is there when needed and you are there for them when they have a need.
Jonathan was a mature spirit when young. Ask his friends. He took on a mantle of maturity that many would have shurked.
So young man { AS I am your senior by many many years, and I am proud to call you friend} turning 29 is not a hard thing, it is not an imposition, nor a hardship.
The only responsibility it carries is for you to do that which is right, tell the truth and never buckle to the persuasion of the mind benders.
May your Birthday be just that like a re-birth, a refreshing, a re-enthusing of your desires and abilities being enabled and used to their full potential.
Not so annonymous Gabriel
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