39 and Holding...

This is it.

The final year of my life that I can still describe myself, albeit in extremely specific instances, as ‘young’. Like if I were to find myself in a retirement home, for example. A bingo hall, perhaps. The Legion. Or even a cemetery. “Boy, compared to these folks, I’m young.”
The number of places I can use the term ‘young’, however, is shrinking. Not that I am ready for the Last Rites or anything. You can hold off on that birthday wheelchair , rascal, and the Frequent Pharmacy Shopper card a little longer.

I enter the last year of my Thirties much calmer than I entered them, for sure. The idea of turning the Big 3-0 scared the crap out of me. I really saw it as the death of something back then. (my mother even brought me dead roses... not nice!)

Even a year prior to the BIG 3-0, when I thought I was the BIG 3-0… hearing my favorite songs in the elevator… sad sad day!

It is because I now know how foolish that was that I can look at the next year with a touch of subdued curiosity. From what I can figure out so far, the idea of the importance of the Milestone known as 40 is something that we have all bought into, or at least will be brought into. It’s the beginning of the end. The top of the Summit. The downhill slide. Old. Out of touch. And for all I know, that could be accurate. I’m not forty yet. I am now thirty-nine years old, and if I’ve learned anything from those before me, its that 39 is the l-o-n-g-e-s-t year of your life. The reason? 39 is like a magic number age-wise. It isn’t just an age, it’s an allegation. A generalization. An alibi, even. It is an unspoken ‘old-enough and that’s all you need to know’ kind of number.

The downside, of course, is the high rate of skepticism. No one who hears ‘he/she is 39’ completely believes it. There is always that little bit of ‘hmmm…I wonder’ in their minds. At this age I start to wonder… when do I have to cut my hair off? Is there an age when you can no longer have long hair? What about pony tails? Can I still buy jeans at the GAP, or is it time to shop at Sears? Am I too old to blog? Well... I am going to just classify myself as "a late blogger" and start it up anyways! What better day than today!