Milestones

In case you are wondering, you start falling apart at 40. I know this, because I am in my 40s and it was when I turned 40 that I started adding in all the extra annual exams. Among those fun new doctors' visits was a colonoscopy, and it got me thinking. Somehow, it seems like we run out of milestones after our 20s. We've taken our first steps, said our first words, had our first day of school, done graduations, left grade school, learned to drive, gone on dates, voted, etc. What else is there?

Well, there are still plenty of milestones in the rest of life, too. They just aren't as exciting. They're things like bills and mortgages and full-time jobs (that offer insurance and retirement, which is a very positive thing but somehow not as exciting as a first birthday. Way more complicated, for sure), and old-people doctors' exams and such. First car? Comes with a side of maintenance costs and possible loan payments. First promotion? Probably also added a lot of work. First retirement? How are your knees doing?

Some of these milestones I have embraced. For example, I am fully leaning into my "get off my lawn" era. No, I don't actually have a lawn, but my version of this is mocking AI. (It's so mockable). I'm also super leaning into being old and not knowing what slang the kids are using these days. I didn't get out of bed every day for decades to NOT be able to stop caring about what people twenty years younger than me think is cool. There have to be some perks.

And there are some good milestones: paying off mortgages, grandkids, more paid vacation to travel, no more homework (and I do NOT undervalue that milestone!!!), being able to buy a thing just for fun without worrying about not being able to eat for two weeks. There are some good things to come. 

It's just a bummer that they come with more doctors exams. That's all.