Looking back on the years, I feel life can generally be segmented into four seasons: Years 0-18, 19-40, 41-60, and 61-80. Sure, folks live past 80; but for myself, personally, my health has never been the greatest. So I think reaching anywhere even close to 70-80 would be a genuine accomplishment. Also, for most people, especially upon reaching those septuagenarian and octogenarian years, one’s overall health usually declines. Longevity of life is not quality of life. And especially towards the end, those two traits often inverse each other. So, personally, I don’t much desire to get very long in the tooth. I would much rather live a happier but shorter life, than a longer, more disease-ridden/Alzheimer-filled inglorious end that drags on into eternity. Slowly dying from a thousand cuts is painful. I know this is morbid stuff but it’s just what happens to be on my mind this beautiful Friday morning.
Once I break down life into the idea of seasons, I see I’m nearly about halfway through it. That’s an odd fact to contemplate– being halfway finished with life. Of course, this is an optimistic projection. Tragedy could befall me tomorrow. But assuming nothing extraordinarily unexpected happens, I’ve advanced about halfway through this mortal coil.
If I take stock of my progress so far, at the 50% mark, I think I’ve done alright. Of course, I wouldn’t mind having more money or more land. Having a giant McMansion with a dedicated housekeeping staff and chef would be certainly nice. So I guess on that front, I’ve come up a little short (okay, a lot short). So by that metric at least, my life is a complete failure. That’s fair. I honestly thought that by this point that I’d have acquired all of those material possessions. (Though one challenge about owning big properties, that I’ve heard my friends grumble about, is that the cost of maintenance and upkeep is honestly the killer expense. Ie. The initial cost of acquisition of a bajillion acres or whatever is actually a tiny fraction of what it costs to keep all that acreage looking nice and civilized in the long run. So that’s something nontrivial to consider.)
Anyway, aside from material possessions, the most important development by far that’s happened to date is that I met Bagel. I’ve mentioned this before but I honestly never thought an S/O was in the cards for me. Meeting Bagel had never been part of my life plan. I’d always been a lone wolf and thought that I would be forever. But luckily, I was wrong!
Looking forward, I’ve got about 50% of life left. Not sure what the future holds but right now my number one priority is to make a ton more money. So I’m working on that. Secondly, I’m also contemplating taking up woodworking. I spend most of my days inside in front of my computer moving pixels around so it’d be nice to take up a hobby that’s very physical and hands-on. I also have a few other data science projects and musings that I need to either start or finish. And finally– gotta make sure to keep in good health and not get derailed again. Life: So much left to do and so little time!