A Small Thought On Birthdays

I got asked two questions this weekend with alarming frequency. The first was, "Can I get you a drink?", which, as far as questions you get asked go, is a pretty good one. The other was "How does it feel to be 40?" And I gave some flip answers about roller coasters and hanging onto the last seconds of 39 and all that good stuff, but really, the magic of round numbers is largely lost on me. 40 makes a good launching off point for essays the same way 30 did - back when I was writing internet humor under the pen name "Elfpants", it served me well* - but really, I don't magically feel "older" this week than I did last week. The first time I felt "old" was when I was 22 and I found myself managing a team of QA testers comprised entirely of offspring and younger siblings of my coworkers; nary a one of them had heard of Talking Heads. From there it was a quick logical jump to "Oh, this 'feeling old' thing is relative", and so on and so forth.
So at this point, I don't look at birthdays as achievements, or checkboxes. If they're anything, they're an excuse to get to the real benefits: to gather with friends and family, to appreciate the experiences I've been lucky enough to have, and more importantly, the folks I've been lucky enough to share them with. All the rest is commentary, and possibly cake.


*To be fair, at 30 I also had a mullet, so my judgment may not have been the soundest.