What I Know Now
It's not so much about what I know now as it is about what I am willing to do about it.
For me, the turning point came once I turned 40. Before that, I never thought about retirement, osteoporosis, or death. Now? Every time I feel a random ache, I inevitably think, "This is it. This is what's going to kill me." Yes, I am a bit macabre, but it's my reality.
However, beyond the physical pains, I've also transitioned to a place where I ultimately don't give a rat's patootie anymore. I truly believe this process is universal. The further we get over the hill, the less we sweat the small stuff. I get to be super selective about who I keep in my life, worry less about the what-ifs, and put it all in perspective. In other words, unless it's a serious health issue, it's all going to be okay. Everything has a way of figuring itself out.
Most of all, I've started to enjoy my own company in a way that made me stop putting myself down. That is a major milestone for me. I used to be my own worst critic. Now? I let others handle that job if they want it; I'm officially retired from it. The realization that I need to be my own best friend took about 40 years, give or take a few. After all, I'm the person I spend the most time with.
Time is a teacher. Often a cruel one because the wisdom only hits once we reach a certain age. How many times do we look back and think, if I could do it all over again…? But I've come to see this as a rite of passage to the other side of this imaginary mountain we call life, or time, or memory.
This shift is exactly what spurred our idea to travel the world. We are so heavily conditioned to believe we need certain things by a certain age or that we have to live a certain way. By the time we realize we don't, the years have passed.
We can't go back. But we can choose what comes next. So, Liam and I did. And don't get me wrong, we choose it every day. It's awesome to see places we would not have seen otherwise, to experience things we would have never experienced, like Liam feeding the bear at the zoo. But would it be easier to sit at a 9-to-5, knowing a paycheck hits my account every two weeks, instead of building this life ourselves, doing things I had never done before? Of course it would. In principle. So we make a choice.
What about you? What are you choosing?