Half a Century

I just realized today that soon I am going to have to change my whole frame of reference. Now, when someone comes up to me and say’s, “Hey, are you cool?” I can no longer reply with “Yeah man, it’s not like I’m FIFTY!!” When somebody casually brings up some other guy and says, “Man that guys old, he must be in his 50’s” I can no longer chuckle and say, “Boy is HE old”. When some silver hair poser drives by in his red Corvette, smiling at the gorgeous blond next to him, I can no longer roll my eyes, mumbling about his obvious mid-life crises. And when I get that AARP invitation in my mailbox, I can no longer pretend it says “resident”, no it actually has my name on it. At least it did until I burned it.

I have always looked forward to turning 50; I think it will be cool. My kids are older, awesome and self sufficient. I have a successful career, and a little bit of freedom; and I really don’t think of myself as old. I just have to get the rest of the world, and my body, to agree with me. The fact that I am real close to senior discounts, and allowed into retirement communities, in my mind means very little. I am thrilled that the passions I had as a child have come back to me. They went away for a while, but are back in full bloom for me to cherish. I just wonder however, if I have crested the hill, and begun the downward slide into old. If so, I plan on keeping my arms in the air the whole way down…… unless they get tired.