Today I turn 40 years old. Yes, I’m surprised as you are, but I suppose that’s how the passage of time works.
I suppose as I enter what is unavoidably middle age, I should dispense some words of wisdom. So, here are a few bullet points:
- As you get older, it gets easier to just be yourself. I don’t feel like I need to pretend to like things, or act differently, just to seek the approval of others any more. It can be hard to be your authentic self when you’re younger, and you need to build your friend group. But it’s quite liberating when you eventually realise that your true friends like you for who you are, and you can just be you.
- Being jealous of the achievements of others is just a waste of energy. Be happy with what you have. There will always be younger people who are better than you or are more successful, and that’s okay.
- True love is unconditional love.
- Don’t assume everyone else has it together just because of their social media persona. We all have our struggles, and not all of us make them public.
Right, that’s the sanctimonious stuff out of the way.
As for how I’m celebrating my 40 years on this earth: I’m currently in the West Midlands with my household. Quite what I’m doing will depend on the weather (I’m writing this a week ago) but it’ll also include a long drive home in the evening. Tomorrow is a meal out with friends, and there’s a family meal on Bank Holiday Monday. Whilst this isn’t as fancy as when we went to Dublin for my 30th, it’ll (hopefully) be a nice family weekend.
It’s nice that my birthday often falls on a long weekend. Although I did have a GCSE exam on my 16th birthday in 2000, which wasn’t so nice. Indeed, up until 2006 I often had exams around my birthday and so celebrations were rather muted.
If you want to see what I wrote on my birthday in previous years, I did a nice summary when I turned 32.
