Tomorrow I will be 25 years old. It’s kind of shocking to me because in some ways it feels like it has been much longer than that. The last four and a half years alone have been so full they could fill 25 years on their own. At the same time that timeframe is the primary context in which I see my life, so it doesn’t feel like I am very old at all.
My life pretty much rebooted four and a half years ago when I came out and the events which took place over those first months left me in a state where I had to start my life over from scratch. I had almost literally nothing. My car was totaled, I had no job or money, I was living in a new and unfamiliar place, and I felt very much alone in this world. All I really had were my laptop, cell phone and a month of rent paid up front. This was the beginning of my very literal renaissance, my rebirth.
Four and a half years later I have a lovely home that is my very own. I have a great job which I’m now beginning to see as a career. I have a reliable car which is something I’ll never take for granted. I have good friends who I love dearly and have been there for me more times than I can count. All of this adds up to make my full and satisfying life which, in many ways, is still just getting started.
Tomorrow I will be 25 years old and as implausible and extraordinary as that seems to me, taken in the context of my implausible and extraordinary life, I suppose it makes sense.
Wow. I feel much the same way. The last few years of my life seem like an entirely different life. Like I have been two people, or three, or four. I look back on my childhood and my teenage years as if they were a book I read, that sticks in my mind but doesn’t really have anything to do with me. It’s bizarre. Hmm… Now I have to write something about that.
In any case, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! What are you doing tomorrow? Shall we take you to breakfast for your birthday?
As we age, each moment of our lives becomes a proportionally smaller part of our overall experience while the value of those moments does not decrease. The value of a moment being what one can accomplish in exchange for its passing. This leads us to feel that, when look back at the recent past, we have done so much in so little time. The encouraging thing is that as long as we continue creating, doing, and experiencing at the same rate; we will continuously feel a greater sense of accomplishment for same amount of actual accomplishment, due to the perceived temporal compression. :-)
First off, congrats! :) You’ve made it thus far, and here’s hoping for many more. 25 wasn’t incredibly significant for me, it was the big three-oooooh. I honestly don’t feel 30 though, more like 25. :) Is that me just refusing to age, or mourning my lost childhood?