Making the Turn

Turning 40 was no big deal. Yeah the wife had been ragging me about it for months but it was all in good fun. While I don't care much for the aging process, getting older never bothered me. It's natural, it's normal and honestly, what choice do we have?

So it came as bit of a surprise when I found myself laying in bed the morning of the last day of my thirties, thinking about time. The thought that got me started was thinking that ten years ago, the same day, I was saying goodbye to my twenties.

I was thinking about how much had happened in the last ten years. Ten years ago the wife and I were still living in the city in our first house. She was working as an x-ray tech/nurse for a small doctor's office. I had not long moved into sales at my job. We had been trying unsuccessfully for five years to have a child. Our weekends consisted of dinners, movies and whatever just popped into our heads. My parents were about to move into their sixties and were looking forward to retirement and enjoying their golden years. Looking back, life seemed simple.


Ten years later we have three children. We live out in the country in the woods. The wife is a stay at home mom and I've already put twenty years into the family business. Our weekends are filled with child activities and home projects. I haven't been to the movies in a very long time. My parents are now starting to worry about their health as they enter their seventies. A different life indeed.

As my mind considered each change, I let it slip into the future. Where would I be ten years from this day as I say goodbye to my forties and hello to my fifties?!! While there is much I don't know, the things I did think of shook me. Quite frankly they blew my mind.

In ten short years I may be in that very same bed but life will be far from the same. My oldest son will be turning eighteen the next day. A legal adult of voting age, driving and hopefully, about to leave the house to go off to college. All my children will be teenagers. I'll be five years and a day away from being a senior citizen. The wife will be working again. All the pets I have now will have passed. My parents, if they are still with us, will surely be wrapping up their lives by then as they start their eighties.

Looking at the future this way, it seems like a lifetime away but based on how fast the last ten years just went, it's just around the corner. I don't mind admitting change doesn't sit well with me. These thoughts did not make me happy. Finally, I was able to stop this thought process and get out of bed to face the day. Although I was able to push these revelations to the back of my mind, an old silly phrase kept running through my head but had now taken on a new meaning.

"Jane! Stop this crazy thing!"

- George Jetson