I completed another trip around the sun this week.

I’m inching my way to the BIG half century mark, and truth-be-told, that has me feeling a little like I’m hanging on to this decade like the Hang In There cat from that 70’s poster. (If you know, then you know. If you don’t, enjoy the Google search.)

I LOVE birthdays; I always have. It’s literally the ONLY day on the calendar that is totally about YOU, or in this case, ME! And as an adult, Facebook birthday wishes, from friends and acquaintances, near and far, offer the equivalent rock-star status that bringing in birthday cookies to the classroom used to provide. 

Although I recently had a conversation that had me checking my perspective and I thought I would share and tap into your thoughts.


A friend was struggling a bit with their own birthday and the general tone of the conversation was one of life as glass-half-empty, or rather, mural already completed vs. white canvas inviting vibrant paint. 

What struck me during this conversation was the sheer polarity of our views regarding the same event. Now, look, I’m not living under a rock; I understand that many issues can have polarizing viewpoints: masks, vaccines, politics, plain or peanut M&M’s…yet listening to him lament his birthday with “my life is 1/2 over” while I was wide-eyed and chanting “I still have 1/2 my life to keep trying to figure this ride out” had me curious and questioning these opposing perspectives.

  • Am I being unrealistic to think I have 1/2 a life left to keep the adventure going? (Provided I live to a ripe old age!)
  • Should I be evaluating all that I’ve accomplished in this life already and measuring it against my anticipated life expectancy? (Seems a little depressing, that one.)
  • Is my life journal full? Can I turn over the pages and write on the backs?

Here’s where I landed:

I suppose it all comes down to how we view our milestones and our lives in general. My friend chose to view it differently than I did and that was his choice at that time.

For me, I chose to gather my neon Sharpies, flip the journal page, and get to sketching out this year’s visions. 

How do you approach your markable milestones? 

Are you looking at a completed picture or are you holding up your paint brush (or neon green Sharpie) and gettin’ to sketchin’?