Older, Not Wiser

I turned 39 today.

However, as Mondrak pointed out I'm only a day older than I was yesterday. Whilst his comments are factually accurate, we tend to consider ourselves as gaining an extra year in age on our birthdays. If somebody had asked me how old I was a couple of weeks ago I would have replied that I was 38, and maybe would've mentioned that I would be 39 in a couple of weeks. But, if somebody had asked me in the summer I would have responded with just the 38 answer, and wouldn't have mentioned that I would be 39 in November unless specifically asked.

However, ask the same question of one of my nephews and they would've said 7½, 9¾ or whatever their actual age was. The extra ½, ¾ or whatever seems to become less important as one gets older.

Also, as a youngster I tended to look forward to my birthday with excitement and whilst I never really received extravagent gifts, I was always fairly happy with what I did receive. As I've gotten older I tend to just look forward to the day as a means of recognising my slow passage into and eventually beyond middle-aged. I still enjoy receiving messages of congratulations, well wishes and birthday cards. However, I am now well past the age at which I expect and look forward to receiving presents. As a family we have all moved away from buying presents for the adult members and instead tend to put a lottery ticket or two into each card. It's not much, but you never know. None of us have ever won anything substantial as a result but there have been a few small wins.

Looking back on the last year of my life I have come to recognise that making stupid decisions result in consequences. I made a stupid decision in October 2007 that cost me my job. I was fired just 3 days before my 38th birthday. Now, here we are, a little over a year later, and I am still lokking to get back into employment. It's not been through a lack of trying. I have made a significant number of applications and have had, what I considered at the time, to be a number of fairly good interviews. I have even had one or two exceptionally good interviews. However, none have resulted in a job offer. The best I managed was to be included in a final shortlist of 3. Looking back, the decision I made at the end of October last year was probably not my finest hour and I suppose if I had to make the decision again I would probably think hard about it. However, after considering everything, the problem is that I would probably still have made the same decision that I did last year.

As I said, older, not wiser!