I realized about a week ago that I was enjoying getting older. I still see myself as a kid, but it hit me why younger people would think that I was trying too hard. It has made the adjustment to adulthood a hell of a lot easier. It isn’t about the music or the fashion or even about the self important sneer that youth allows (and encourages).

Though, the music and the fashion does matter…picture seeing someone who looks like me wearing distressed jeans, a QC t-shirt prattling on about some freakishly obscure band who is only listenable because they are incredibly derivative of some band who was once good twenty five years ago…and then picture them trying to be taken seriously in a meeting…

I think the most important realization that I have come to about being older is losing my need to be in a self affirming echo chamber, where my beliefs are parroted back to me, my anxieties are soothed, and my biases re-affirmed. Knowing when I am correct in my assumptions, when my assumptions may be flawed, and when my assumptions are probably wrong (but I am going to fight on anyway) has been more than a little liberating.

So, anyway, as I approach my thirty second birthday, I am happier and healthier (both in mind and body) than I have been in years. I thank Ami for all of this. It’s cool having such a great best friend.