Hello World...

My name is Michael and I'm turning 40.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. That's not going to happen for another 13 weeks...(13 weeks from today to be precise). I know. I know. I know what you might be thinking. 40 you say? Big deal. I remember turning 40 years ago. Or maybe you're thinking...40? Gosh...that's sooooo old. Or perhaps you're even thinking...Whew! I'm glad I'm not the only one having these thoughts about hitting the big 4-0. Whatever the case may be, many of us have either thought about turning 40 or have reflected on what it was like to turn 40 at some point. That being said, I'm here to share with you my own journey towards that magical mystical age.

So why do it? Why spend the next 13 weeks pondering life and blogging about it? My answer is simple...why not? Some consider 40 to be a milestone in life. In fact, you may get to a point in your own life when you begin to quantify your years in tidy neat little multiples of 10. You know, the metric system of life. Maybe you remember turning 20. You felt as though you were invincible as you stood on top of the world. Maybe you remember turning 30. You felt all the anxiety that your youth was coming to an end. But 40? Why be so reflective at 40 when there is still so much life left to live? In practical terms, according to the CDC in 2006, life expectancy in the U.S. was still only 77.7 years. So one could argue that I've already reached the half way point (although I do plan to live much longer than that). Also, let's not forget the metric rule. 40 begins the next set of 10. It introduces a new number at the front which means that the thirties will be gone forever. They will only be available to me from now on as mere memories. But the real reason I'm doing this is because of some inspiration I received a short time ago from one of the most important people in my life.

My wife, Debbie, had what I thought to be a brilliant idea. She told me one day, as she made her own journey towards her big milestone, that she wanted to do something special for her 4oth birthday. Naturally, my thoughts about the occasion ranged from an intimate dinner for two to a special party with family and friends to a weekend trip at the beach or maybe even a weeklong trip in the mountains. Whatever it was going to be, we were going to do it. She just had to tell me what she wanted to do. "You name it," I said. "Anything. Anything at all." But it turned out to be none of those things. Instead, she went on to tell me that she wanted to send letters to the people in her life she felt the closest to. That's what she wanted to do for her 40th birthday. That was it. My first reaction was..."Come again?" She continued by telling me that she didn't want her feelings towards these people to ever go unspoken or unwritten. It was important to her that they knew how she felt. These were the people who helped shape the person she is today and she wanted them to know it. They were family, friends, relatives and even colleagues of hers. So she did it. She went on to carefully write her beautiful words for each person on her list. She printed them out against a background of an artistic montage SHE created (that reflected her talents quite well I might add) then sent them off in the mail. It was amazing. And in being a fortunate recipient of one of these golden tickets, I will only say that when it was my turn, Debbie wrote me what I can only describe as the greatest love letter I've ever received. I treasure it and I still keep it on the side of the bed in my nightstand. It's probably the second greatest gift I've ever received from her. The only words I will share with you from that letter though are the words she wrote at the very end. They are the only words that aren't her own. They are the words of someone great who shares her actual birth date. The quote, which you may have heard before, goes something like this: "It's not the years in your life that count...it's the life in your years." said by none other than Abraham Lincoln. (My wife is a big fan of quotes.)

So how the heck do I top that? The simple answer is that I don't. The more complex answer is that if I want to do something to commemorate my 40 years of life, then I need to find my own way to do so. So this was my idea...a 13 week blog with two entries per week leading up to my 40th birthday. Okay...but who am I doing this for? Quite honestly and a little selfishly...I'm doing it for me. After hearing all of the jokes about getting older and turning 40 and how life is going to change even more for me, I decided not to resist it, but to embrace it. I don't claim to be a great writer or someone special who is going through something nobody else has or will. I'm just an ordinary guy writing a blog who wants to document his own journey and share it with anyone who cares. For some of you, this may be the last entry you read because you may find that you think it's cute but you're just not that interested. That is absolutely fine and I bid you adieu. For the rest of you, especially my fellow Generation X-ers (which I believe includes everyone born between 1961 and 1981) I invite you to share this journey with me. You'll laugh a lot. You might even cry a little. Heck, you may even want to forward the link to someone else you know. All I ask is this. Listen with an open mind and I'll write with an open heart. I'm turning 40 and I'd love to share the experience.