So. Turned 30 then? Yeah, so did I. So did many of the good folks I know and love. Its that tender year of all your old friends truly becoming Old Friends, all fascinatingly in the order you did at school, rather than observing the calendar year cycle.
So. Feeling old then? I'm not. And nor should you.
Let me put it to you this way. 30 is likely to be somewhere around a third to a half of your mathematical lifespan. So in that sense it can seem a little scary. But you're missing a number of points there.
Yes, you've existed for 30 years. But how long have you been truly alive? Think about your life and childhood; the first ten years are certainly something of a blur, even when you're living them. You're just a ball of energy, reactions and saturday morning cartoons, really. In fact, I'll go further and bet that you really only start to remember with proper clarity a few years later than that, say 12 or 13, when you really felt the growing process begin to take a hold and memories take root.
Oh, yes, like you I have some memory of my extreme youth. I have memory of when I was three, I remember Lisa Anderson's third birthday (our neighbours at the time). I remember many things from being a child; travelling france with the family, being good at school, realising I was mad as a brush, even the time I was suspended from school (one day). I remember lots of it, but that also misses some of the point.
In retrospect, much of it feels like it wasn't Me. It was proto-me. Me before I became Me. Yes, literally speaking I did those things, but in my adult life I am quite a different person. And that, dear people, brings me to my point.
When did you feel like the person you are now? For me, I only really started to become truly me in sixth form. And it was then largely cemented by university. So from my perspective, whilst I have existed as a separate entity for 30 years, the person metaphorically in front of you has probably only been here a decade.
And look at what the decade has wrought. I have travelled three continents. I have worked on, integrated and designed aircraft capable of astounding feats. I have learnt language, I have learnt instruments, I have learnt tools, I have stood on my own feet.
I have fallen in love. I have fallen into brilliant luck. I have fallen over in a riverbed in Thailand and been stuck to the waist.
I have stood my ground. I have stood on the highest mountain of this land. I have stood with my family through birth and infirmity.
I have seen events both massive and tiny and found beauty within them all.
I have done a lot in this decade. And I'm willing to bet all of you have too. You've travelled, moved, married, divorced, worked, played (often with fire), you've loved, you've lost, you've held, you've run.
And i'll bet you've done so much of it, like me, in the last decade when you were finally You.
So what is 30 years? Its maybe 10 years since you've really been here, and it a celebration of a decade of kicking ass and taking names. It isn't a moment to feel sad.
Because if you can do everything you have done, all of you, every single one, in a decade - think what you can do with 3, 4, 5 or 6 more decades. When you are very firmly You. With your friends, loved ones and children all with You.
This is not the moment to lament the passing of time. This is the moment to stand in awe of the power you have before you, a marching army of Beings ready to bring the world to proper account.
And so I have no pity for you, I salute you, one and all.
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