Hello,
Tomorrow (September 7th) I turn 38 years old and so I thought I'd write a blog about getting old. The first question is - is 38 old? Obviously this is purely conjecture, but it seems to me that age isn't that relevant when it comes to talking about being old. What's that Rance? Talking bollocks again? Perhaps. What I mean is that age really is a state of mind. I see people in their twenties who seem nearer to fifty and people in their fifties who seem in their twenties and this isn't to do with how old they are. It's their mindset. Oh, here he goes, throwing around worthless clichés (it's not how old you are, but how old you feel, right?) Well yes. I'm turning 38 tomorrow, two short years before the big 40, but I'm not worried.
When I was in my teens and twenties, I had a thing about making plans. Life was about making plans and then making those plans spring to life. My famous five year plans. Most of my friends probably at some point, heard about one of my five year plans. But the thing about plans is they give life meaning (to me, anyway). I like knowing that I have things in the pipeline. Plans to travel (lots), plans to write books (lots), to do things with the kids and my wonderful wife. I have lots of plans and I intend to follow through with all of them. Why not?
I don't talk about my family much, but the one thing that's changed so much in the last ten years of my life is my mum. She has Huntington's Disease, which is a degenerative disease that is incurable and will eventually kill her. It's horribly sad and has taken away my mum. She's still with us and will be for hopefully a few more years yet, but she isn't the mum I was supposed to have my whole life. The mum I assumed I would have forever. My mum's fifties have been taken from her and it makes me think even more about age and the choices we make. You never know what's going to happen, what we'll be able to do next year, the year after or the year after that.
So what's my final point? Life isn't about how much money you have, but what you do with it. It isn't about the size of your house, but what you have in it. It isn't about the number of days you have left, but what you do with those days. It isn't about how old you are, but how you live your life. I know I'm not going to waste mine. I'm not going to go through life without the people I love knowing it, without taking the chance to travel to new countries and show my kids the world and without living as much as I can with a plan to keep on enjoying life and living it the right way.
I'm 38 tomorrow. I'm an author, I'm happily married with two kids and if you'd given me that at 21, I'd have bitten your hand off. I already know where I want to be at 48 - time to make sure it happens.
Until next time.
Hugs,
Jon X
