the last minutes of 37

In about 20 minutes, I'll be 38 years old. I'm not telling you this because I think it's a frightening number, or because I'm worried about getting older. Mostly, I'm just scratching my head a little bit over the whole thing, and I want to tell the boys something now because by the time they are turning 38, this will all be a long-lost memory for me. So boys, here's the thing: Don't feel bad when you hit 38 (or any age, for that matter) and you feel like you don't have your act together like you thought you would. If your 401k is scarily small and you're worried about money and job security and you spend all your time running around putting out fires instead of making progress on the life you want to build, try not to sweat it too much. I definitely don't feel like a grown-up who has it all figured out, and an informal poll shows that none of my friends do either. It's possible that we're an entire Peter Pan generation, but it seems more likely to me that nobody ever really gets it all figured out. And that's okay. It's good, even. I'm always learning, always figuring out new things, and yet I feel like there's a whole universe of things still to discover. And not to get too sappy on you, but the fundamental truth is that even when I feel like all I do is put out fires, when each day seems like just a repeat of the chore list of the day before, I know that I am building something -- three somethings! -- more precious than I would have thought myself capable of.

But for anyone who happens to be reading this who does feel like a grown-up, feel free to drop me a line in the comments so I know approximately when to expect this miraculous transformation. It'll be something to look forward to!