Today is my birthday and apparently it’s a biggie. As of 8:10 am eastern time this morning, as this post became “live,” I officially turned 40. The big four-0.  Four decades of life. You wanna know what I have to say?  Big deal!  Unlike many of my friends, turning 40 isn’t some traumatic event or life-changing moment.  To me, it is just another birthday, another year that I’ve “made it through.” I guess part of the reason I don’t feel it’s such a big deal is because in my head I don’t feel like I’m 40 or at least this is not how I think of someone who is 40.

I guess in some sort of weird way I will always see myself as someone who is still in the process of growing up and trying to figure it all out. How can it be that I’m old enough to be married, have a home & mortgage, have two little kidlets and a career?  Wasn’t it just yesterday that I started kindergarten?  Went on my first date?    Learned how to drive a car? Graduated from college?  Got my first paycheck? Sometimes it all seems like a dream to me or at least one of those crazy reality TV shows that I’m watching which happens to star someone who looks an awfully lot like me.    Jeez, it’s funny how time flies!

Some people use 40 as a benchmark, measuring what have achieved by this age and consider themselves as some sort of failure if they haven’t met up with their expectations.

I certainly don’t look at 40 this way.  I look back at the past 39 years in amazement and where it has brought me in this life so far.  I look ahead at 40 and the many, MANY years and decades ahead (hey, 40 is nowhere near ‘over the hill’ in my family – I have relatives who are well into their 80s and even 100s!) and what the future has in store for me.   I believe that by living life to the fullest my youthfulness will always be with me.

So let’s blow out some candles and have some cake!