I admit my family makes birthdays special, and I appreciate them for it. As the years pass and the grey hairs increase, we do what we can to make each other feel loved and appreciated. That can mean all sorts of gifts, which I’ll need to wrap for my younger brother since his birthday is three days after mine. Really hoping he likes my gifts.
It’s weird how when you’re a kid, you’re excited about turning older. It’s a milestone that you have made it through another year, and it means losing more baby teeth while gaining inches. The minute you turn eighteen, however, it feels like the excitement becomes dread. We have officially become adults and “grown-up”. And that is a scary thought. “Growing up” means finding a job, building a career, and figuring out who you are. It also means dealing with a company deciding if you have value, and how you find worth for yourself.
Where I Am Now
In 2016, I graduated with an MBA, concentration in marketing. Since then I have held a number of day jobs and explored various writing ventures. I am a published author, with six books out, and a plethora of short stories. It’s thanks to the people who have read my work, passed it on, and published it. I am grateful to the teachers that told me about short story contests, and to the editors that said to “go long” and turn a short story into a novel or novella. And I appreciate all the readers that wanted to find out what happened next. All the success, big and small, matters.
Twenty-eight is two years from turning thirty. In The Devil Wears Prada, Andy Sachs is twenty-four when she begins her writing career in earnest. While the novel is fictional, as all novels are, it provides hope that life will provide direction and guidance. That the answer will emerge with time, grit, and hard work.
Thirty is not a death sentence. Let me make that clear. But there’s so much I want to accomplish before reaching that age. And I have work to do if I want to accomplish it. So I’m going to use the next month to reflect, watch the Mr. Rogers documentary, and explore how to achieve these goals.
I’m going to be twenty-eight on Monday. My grey hairs have been dyed away. I’ve been attending cardio classes and need to resume yoga. The future is unknown. But it’s there.
