I’m taking my time today with my tasty Starbucks beverage. After all… I’m not going to be able to have it anymore, in just 2 short days.
On Tuesday, I turn 29 years old.
This isn’t a major birthday accomplishment, certainly… it doesn’t end with a zero, and I gain no new rights or abilities that I otherwise haven’t been allowed these previous 28 years. But yet, when I dig much deeper, this birthday is huge. This birthday is the biggest one yet.
This birthday is the Renaissance Birthday.
(By Renaissance I certainly don't mean I'm becoming a minstrel this year. Maybe next year. Hell, I knew there was no way to make it sound good.)
Starting on Tuesday and for a starter period of the next twelve months, I am setting about on a pretentious period of dynamic and sweeping change… to my health, to my career and finances, to my relationships, all the way down to my surroundings in society (and if you take that to mean I’m going to be doing a lot more recycling, you’ve got me dead to rights).
Some of these changes will be small and sublime – for instance, me purchasing energy-saving light bulbs, which is one of the early items on the list – won’t necessarily affect my screenwriting projects, but when taken all toll, the entire twelve months are going to produce a leaner, happier, healthier me… just in time for my 30th birthday.
A sample of the tasks include:
* Radically overhauling a diet to say goodbye to some LONG-TERM staples… such as non-whole grain breads and pastas, sugar, beer, those ridiculous Cinnamon Mini-Bagels from Pepperidge Farm that I'm convinced are laced with black tar heroin, and the most difficult goodbye… Starbucks
* Creating a savings account and preparing for actual adult purposes… such as a new car and possibly real estate... unless I just move back in with my parents
* Expanding my worldview to include much more culturally diverse offerings – museum stops, a reading list that would choke a horse (provided you attempted to make said horse eat a pile of books), learning Spanish, and more
* The Big One – training properly and completing a marathon next July… right before the 30th birthday. This serves a couple of purposes… it will instill better discipline in my physical life, it will give me time to focus on a large goal, and it will exorcise the Philadelphia Marathon Demon that looms still to this day.
And I’ll be here… from time to time… keeping myself honest and moving 12 months forward into the 30s and out of the period of quarter life crises and malaise.
Kennedy once said “If not now, when?” The time is definitely now.
After this visit to Starbucks, I mean.
3 comments:
I agree that self improvement is a good thing, but this seems a bit harsh. I know what you are going through, I'm going through the same things. My advice is that good stuff will happen on their own without your intervention or even knowledge. All of my older friends (30+) who are married were in the same boat as us at our age. Their advice is the same as mine. Don't sweat the small stuff -- like starbucks...life tends to work itself out. Kennedy had his finger on the a-bomb and in Marilyn -- things worked out (no WW3).
Agreed - but this isn't some sort of rigid punishment. Not in the least. If anything, it's an opportunity to stay on task.
For what it's worth, Marilyn's involvement with Kennedy(s) didn't end well for her.
Kennedy was my favorite MTV veejay!
Post a Comment