three zero.
It has been two years since I made a blog post on this day exactly. In my mind and looking back that day held much more significance than today's three decade mark. But since numbers ending in a zero seem to hold special significance in base 10 it is a nice time to reflect.
Before looking back too far, let me say that Sunday was a great day. Jenny had (apparently) been plotting a surprise birthday party for me for weeks. She provided me just enough information to keep me from suspecting anything unusual and had quietly contacted all my friends so that after I picked her up from work on Sunday everyone would be in the house. Sneaky to the extreme. I was thoroughly and pleasantly surprised.
As a random tangent, the last surprise party for me didn’t go off nearly as well. My good friend, Denise (who is an event planner in denial), planned a birthday party for me when I turned something like 24 or 25. Unfortunately, she didn’t anticipate me calling up Carolyn and seeing if she wanted to catch up over dinner… because I didn’t have any plans for my birthday. During dinner, my phone kept ringing with several of my friends with lame excuses why I should return home. Finally, one of them finally broke down and said, “Do you know where I am? I’m at your house and you know what? You’re not here so you’re missing your party.” I found the whole thing quite amusing (but Denise never really forgave me). Jenny had her bases covered this time… she invited Carolyn and Steve to the surprise party this Sunday. <smile/>
But getting back to the reflecting, on the drive downtown with just Jenny tonight for dinner I was thinking about what turning 30 really meant to me. Over dinner I shared my thoughts with her that I’ll share with you here now.
First, for the last 30 years (that does sound a bit weird) I feel like I’ve been working hard to learn as much as I could to build a foundation that I could operate from confidently. Elementary school was about learning enough to get into middle school. Middle school was about learning enough to get into high school. High school as about learning enough to get into college. College was about learning enough to get a good job. Working at my job was about learning enough to be able to actually do something. Well, now I actually feel like I have enough of a foundation to really do some cool things and learning is just a natural reflex (like reading words on passing billboards).
Second, my parents just turned 60. They are doing quite well (healthy, active, comfortable). I’m half their age now. That (hopefully) means I have a good 30 years ahead of me to do a great many active things. That means for as long as I’ve spent learning, I can now spend doing. That is really quite exciting.
Finally, and this is a feeling better captured by my 28th birthday blog entry but Jenny and I are now married. That means there are a whole bunch of new experiences and things to do with someone else that weren’t possible before. And I’m just starting to learn what that really means…