Reaching Milestones - How do you handle them?

[kundalini]

Does anyone else have particular actions, thoughts or feelings when certain milestones of age are reached? Exhilaration...despondency…inward reflections…outward displays of emotion…things to come…things that have passed…

I have one of those milestones today and am just flat or even slightly left of center (not to be confused with how I approach life in general). I began work at 7:00am today and have already knocked out 1 set of final drawings and will finish two set of preliminaries. I work from home so the travel time to the office is fairly short, grab a coffee on the way to the other end of the house. No calls from family, friends or colleagues. The dog could care less but didn’t expect anything else out of him.

I began this post because it is to be the last photos of me in my forties. I see my contemporaries and am immediately relieved of my preservation, but it falls on blind eyes of those that I fancy. I don’t feel (most days) that I am as old as the calendar indicates, don’t think as an old man; though I have slowed some of my activities, I don’t act as many I know my age. Oh…and I still wear size 32” waist trousers. Nevertheless, somehow, it just doesn’t seem right.

It’s 2:30 in the afternoon. I will stop work shortly. I’m staring at a shot of tequila as a celebratory gesture.

Just some random thoughts today.

Do you have any?

 

[Fangman]

When I reached 65 I thought that would be a milestone - the official Pension age for a man in the UK. That didn't worry me, but when my daughter reached 40 that did.
I was the father of a middle aged woman! When she was 16 and I was 40 she certainly considered that I was not only middle aged but OLD!

 

[Hertz van Rental]

When I was 17 I thought I would be dead before I was 30 - I mean, that's old!
But I found my 30's were terrific.
I got depressed when I hit 40 - until I found that being in my 40's was even better than being in my 30's.
And being in my 50's is better still - because now I just don't give a **** about anything :mrgreen:

 

[(Ghastly) Krueger]

When I realized I'd be 30 by the year 2000, I thought "that's a long way to go".

Now it's come and gone like nothing... didn't feel like a milestone at all.

From time to time I do feel tired and unable to do stuff as before.

Im looking forward to the point of not caring anymore.

 

[Alex_B]

My last milestone, 30, I considered only a number. And it really did not change anything, not even for the better

However, that night I spent in the common room (student accommodation) of an old house in Exeter, got totally drunk with housemates and friends, watched The Jungle Book of Walt Disney about 5 times that night, the last two times I do not remember well though

 

[dpolston]

I can't really say that I have reached a point where milestones have bothered me much. Although I look around (mostly in the media) and see other people (those I'd consider kids mainly) who are in far better economic shape I am in, and I question it the reason for it. I watched a skateboarder on tv the other day question himself on whether or not he wants to buy his own house at age 17. I also saw some facts about a boxer that pissed away his fortune and the statistic was that his spending averaged 41,000 a day spent every day for 20 years. Those things are what make me question myself and think "where are those breaks?"

What are their milestones going to be like?

 

[LaFoto]

Have a TPF-party!
I brought you some 50-year-old whisky. Go look.

Other than that I develop a greater and greater dislike for "milestones" and "milestone celebrations" and would wish I could skip them all these days. Like the same kind of birthday you are having today in only a little less than 2 years time, or ... worse even! ... my Silver Wedding ale: ... horrors. I wish there were a hole for me to disappear into...

 

[Emerana]

When I was 19 I developed bad asthma ... I also smoked. doctors kept telling me I would be dead before I was 30. Now that I am 29 (a non-smoker for 7 years!) I am terrified that I wont make it to 30. So turning and being 29 is tough, I am so paranoid about death...but I will be REALLLLLLY happy to hit 30 and I think I will enjoy my 30s very much.

I think you should enjoy your birthday...you earned it and it beats the alternative.

 

[nealjpage]

My big moment of realization came on the afternoon of my 26th birthday when I concluded that I was closer to 30 than i was to 20. And that was a tough pill to swallow.

Now I'm 29 and am not looking forward to 30, which'll happen in August...

 

[hawkeye]

I never have thought of age as a milestone. It's how a person grows and changes mentally, philosophically and physically .That was always my measurements of milestone.

I have known many immature middle aged adults. I have also known a few extremely mature young adults. So its really all how you look at it.

 

[kundalini]

When she was 16 and I was 40 she certainly considered that I was not only middle aged but OLD!

I'm pretty sure my sons felt the same. The only thing is that now that I can legally have a drink with them, I feel old.

And being in my 50's is better still - because now I just don't give a **** about anything :mrgreen:

That's been my philosophy for the last couple of years.

Im looking forward to the point of not caring anymore.

In the year 2020.

My last milestone, 30, I considered only a number.

You lucky b@$+@rd.

What are their milestones going to be like?

I guess it all depends on your mindset. My mind is pretty set right now. It wasn't too pretty this morning, but this evening everything is in a blurry focus.

Have a TPF-party!.....I wish there were a hole for me to disappear into...

Is there room for another?

I think you should enjoy your birthday...you earned it and it beats the alternative.

Touchee!

Now I'm 29 and am not looking forward to 30, which'll happen in August...

30's a piece of cake.

It's how a person grows and changes mentally, philosophically and physically .That was always my measurements of milestone.

How'd you get so smart at such a young age?

 

[jstuedle]

I guess I have a unique outlook on age. At 34 I was a manager of a department worth 350 million a year and working 14-16 hour days 7 days a week for up to 10 weeks straight. The year was 1989. That year I had a total of 7 days off. Average work day for 365 was 14.7 hours. I was unbreakable, immortal so it seemed. In November of the next year, still working those crazy hours I went into total kidney failure. In less than 48 hours I went from being tough and resilient, to near death and slipped into sever depression. The Doc's would write me off three times in the next 3 years. I had my first transplant in 1991. It had real problems for the first year and I spent almost 7 months in a hospital bed in Cincinnati. At that time the average 50% life expectancy for the recipient of a cadaver kidney was only 10 years. I had 10 years to really live, and the kidney I got was marginal at best. I got over the depression with the help of my savior, my wife Cathy. I learned to look at life as many much older people do. "I go to see the sun come up today, so I got another one". In those next 10 years I was able to see my children finish high school, and the birth of the first of my grandchildren. We were able to take our stocks and investments and keep our home and cars. And keep a reasonably stable home for the kids. At 45 I was still here. At 46 the kidney started to fail and at 50 just days away from another round of dialysis our 27 year old son gave me a good kidney. Now in my fifty's I often feel much older than I am. (15 years of really serious medication can do that to you) Sometimes feel like I'm 35 again. But I can tell you I cherish each and every day the sun comes up and I get anotherone.

 

[Antithesis]

I'm still pretty young so I can't tell you much about milestones. All I know is two years ago I was drunk 5 nights a week, my grades were poor and my future looked pretty grim. Now I have a long term girlfriend, a dog, a nice little house and good grades. I'm not sure when I hit a milestone, but I think it was a doozy.

 

[dpolston]

My wife had the opposite reaction to her "turning 30" milestone. She said that she looked forward to it because it seemed to give her more credibility. She felt that when someone ask how old she was in respect to some "adult decision" when she was in her 20's, she'd be more easily dismissed as a "twenty-something". When she hit the "thirty-somethings" she felt that people took her more seriously.

I'll have to add that we were married young. Both 19; my wife 19 my a month. We were always having to break our own milestone challenges because we thought marriage was a pretty big thing. The people that didn't think we were going to make it have had to eat their words. 20 years this year.

 

[kundalini]

^^ Good on ya dpolston. I've made it twenty years as well. It just happens to be with two (completely) different women, both at 10 years each and a 6 year intermition in between.

Third times the charm I always say.