Today is just a bit weird for me personally.
I know everyone is going to say "Its just a number" or "you are only as old as you feel" or "50 is the new 30"... and I completely agree with all those statements. Also, I am not dreading my arrival of a big milestone / transition / change of label as one that has reached 50. But I am sure almost everyone that hasn't yet or has already passed the BIG 5 0 milestone pondered this milestone from many different angles and has different feelings about their arrival of this major personal milestone.
Well I have this blog site. So I thought I would use my blog to express my feeling and thoughts around this major milestone in my life that (unless I kick off in the next few hours) arrives tomorrow.
So, tomorrow September 2nd at 1:05am I turn 50. Strangely enough, 50 years ago, Sept 2nd 1963, it was LABOUR DAY. ;) An appropriately labeled day for a mother to give birth to a baby. In fact, for our city back then there was even a prize for the first Labour Day baby born in the city. I was born at 1:05am and missed it by 15 minutes to another baby that won the honour.
More strange is that during my high school years I discovered that one of my good friends was born the same day as me. Not only was she born on the same day but it turns out the same hospital and SHE WAS the Labour Day baby that beat me into this world by 15 minutes!
Another strange event is that it is not common for Sep 2 to fall on Labour Day, but it did 50 years ago and it does tomorrow. for me that seems like a special little gift from fate even though its just a fluke of math. Honestly I remembered as a kid that I didn't like my birthday on Sep 2 because Labour Day was almost always JUST AFTER my big day so it passed a few days before school started and all my friends came back from summer vacation. It was SUCH A TEASE - so close and yet so far.
So what is this strange feeling on the eve of me becoming 50 and entering the 2nd 1/2 century of my life. Why did I post about the EVE of my big day and not ON the big day? After all, Sep 1 has no relevance to me other than its the day before.
I think the best word for what I am feeling so strongly today is : "NOSTALGIC". And why is the feeling so strong today? Because once the day has arrived I think the moment of the new era in my life begins and the pre-50 era has passed. So today is the day my mind feels it needs to honor and ponder and reminisce the 49.9999 years that have taken me to this day - the EVE OF MY 50TH.
First of all, I have always had a strange fascination for numeric milestones. I don't know what it is but I do. I am the one that when November 11th, 2011 at 11:11 am rolled by, I took an image capture of it as it arrived. I am the one that has to always point out to my wife in the car "HEYYYY!! The Odometer hit 96,000! Look Look!". In fact when my old car hit 100,000 miles I pulled the car over and took a picture of it :). So.... of course, hitting the one-time event of turning 50... its going to hit me especially hard. :)
Questions like: "What have I accomplished before 50?" and "What do I need to do in the days left in my life?" and "Am I officially now old?"... and most importantly... " Why does that 55 Senior's Discount at all the restaurants seem sooo to close now and I don't feel like a Sr. deserving of the discount? "
This blog site / web site is focused / dedicated around my virtual persona of TOYSOLDIER THOR and his experiences in and around the world of SecondLife®. As such, I know most of you that are reading this are some of the absolute amazing fun friends and acquaintances of Toy.... a part of my real life that started 5 1/2 years ago and I would be devastated if I ever lost. Toy and all his friends and experiences might be part of this "SECOND" virtual life but it is as much a part of my "FIRST" real life as all that really is my real life.
But saying that. I know most of you don't know much at all about the RL man that runs Toysoldier Thor. So all I can say about the RL me that will reach 50 tomorrow is that I have experimented, experienced, and accomplished a lot during this era that soon will pass in the next few hours. I have also been blessed by fortune on my health up to the end of this era and as much as I don't treat my body with the respect it should deserve (bad diet, poor exercise, etc.) I thank the genetics that was given to me while I was baking in my Mom's lil oven.
I also look forward to the new era that is about to arrive tomorrow. I have so many new irons in my life's fire now (including some directly credited to my life in SecondLife® like my art) that I need to either make a success or expand upon. I am a posterchild of entrepreneurship and I decided to embrace it for all its worth and all I have to offer by mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. And thanks to the passion of art that SecondLife® spawned in my RL, I have so many avenues to explore and expand my deep new love for creating art.
So I conclude by thanking this passing pre-50 era for an amazing 49.9999 years of service and I am now ready to greet this new era of 50+ with a list of challenges to take on and a stronger passion to get them done!
I know everyone is going to say "Its just a number" or "you are only as old as you feel" or "50 is the new 30"... and I completely agree with all those statements. Also, I am not dreading my arrival of a big milestone / transition / change of label as one that has reached 50. But I am sure almost everyone that hasn't yet or has already passed the BIG 5 0 milestone pondered this milestone from many different angles and has different feelings about their arrival of this major personal milestone.
Well I have this blog site. So I thought I would use my blog to express my feeling and thoughts around this major milestone in my life that (unless I kick off in the next few hours) arrives tomorrow.
So, tomorrow September 2nd at 1:05am I turn 50. Strangely enough, 50 years ago, Sept 2nd 1963, it was LABOUR DAY. ;) An appropriately labeled day for a mother to give birth to a baby. In fact, for our city back then there was even a prize for the first Labour Day baby born in the city. I was born at 1:05am and missed it by 15 minutes to another baby that won the honour.
More strange is that during my high school years I discovered that one of my good friends was born the same day as me. Not only was she born on the same day but it turns out the same hospital and SHE WAS the Labour Day baby that beat me into this world by 15 minutes!
Another strange event is that it is not common for Sep 2 to fall on Labour Day, but it did 50 years ago and it does tomorrow. for me that seems like a special little gift from fate even though its just a fluke of math. Honestly I remembered as a kid that I didn't like my birthday on Sep 2 because Labour Day was almost always JUST AFTER my big day so it passed a few days before school started and all my friends came back from summer vacation. It was SUCH A TEASE - so close and yet so far.
So what is this strange feeling on the eve of me becoming 50 and entering the 2nd 1/2 century of my life. Why did I post about the EVE of my big day and not ON the big day? After all, Sep 1 has no relevance to me other than its the day before.
I think the best word for what I am feeling so strongly today is : "NOSTALGIC". And why is the feeling so strong today? Because once the day has arrived I think the moment of the new era in my life begins and the pre-50 era has passed. So today is the day my mind feels it needs to honor and ponder and reminisce the 49.9999 years that have taken me to this day - the EVE OF MY 50TH.
First of all, I have always had a strange fascination for numeric milestones. I don't know what it is but I do. I am the one that when November 11th, 2011 at 11:11 am rolled by, I took an image capture of it as it arrived. I am the one that has to always point out to my wife in the car "HEYYYY!! The Odometer hit 96,000! Look Look!". In fact when my old car hit 100,000 miles I pulled the car over and took a picture of it :). So.... of course, hitting the one-time event of turning 50... its going to hit me especially hard. :)
Questions like: "What have I accomplished before 50?" and "What do I need to do in the days left in my life?" and "Am I officially now old?"... and most importantly... " Why does that 55 Senior's Discount at all the restaurants seem sooo to close now and I don't feel like a Sr. deserving of the discount? "
This blog site / web site is focused / dedicated around my virtual persona of TOYSOLDIER THOR and his experiences in and around the world of SecondLife®. As such, I know most of you that are reading this are some of the absolute amazing fun friends and acquaintances of Toy.... a part of my real life that started 5 1/2 years ago and I would be devastated if I ever lost. Toy and all his friends and experiences might be part of this "SECOND" virtual life but it is as much a part of my "FIRST" real life as all that really is my real life.
But saying that. I know most of you don't know much at all about the RL man that runs Toysoldier Thor. So all I can say about the RL me that will reach 50 tomorrow is that I have experimented, experienced, and accomplished a lot during this era that soon will pass in the next few hours. I have also been blessed by fortune on my health up to the end of this era and as much as I don't treat my body with the respect it should deserve (bad diet, poor exercise, etc.) I thank the genetics that was given to me while I was baking in my Mom's lil oven.
I also look forward to the new era that is about to arrive tomorrow. I have so many new irons in my life's fire now (including some directly credited to my life in SecondLife® like my art) that I need to either make a success or expand upon. I am a posterchild of entrepreneurship and I decided to embrace it for all its worth and all I have to offer by mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. And thanks to the passion of art that SecondLife® spawned in my RL, I have so many avenues to explore and expand my deep new love for creating art.
So I conclude by thanking this passing pre-50 era for an amazing 49.9999 years of service and I am now ready to greet this new era of 50+ with a list of challenges to take on and a stronger passion to get them done!