Is 55 the New 21?

Is 55 the new 21? Like many of us, I find myself at 55 (or older) not really sure how I got here. It all happened so quickly that I had little time or interest in stopping to think about it until now. I’m 55. In fact, I’ll be 56 soon enough. How did it all go by so quickly and how can I possibly still think, and sometimes act, like I’m 21? When will I become an adult and what will I do when I grow up?

I’m a very lucky 55-year-old male. I have two wonderful sons who continue to make me proud in so many ways. The oldest just graduated from NYU as a Film Producer and the other will enter Auburn University this fall with the hope of playing football for his beloved Tigers. My daughter, who I don’t see as often as I’d like, is in school for her Master’s Degree. My mother is still very vibrant and I have the privilege of seeing her on a daily basis. She’s both Mom and a great friend. My psychologist/college professor sister (the intellectual of the siblings) and my twin brother are well and stay in relatively close contact. My ex-wife and I remain friends and my wonderful romantic interest is just that …wonderful.

My life is great …challenging, scary, fun, confusing, and full of hope, gratefulness, and surprises. This is where being 55 eerily coalesces with being 21 and just getting out of college. I feel very much as though a wonderfully long chapter of my life is completed, but now how best to write the next one? Like at 21, I’m filled with testosterone (though maybe not as much) induced confidence in my ability to forge ahead, but exactly to where and for how long?

I love the different businesses that I’ve had and have the good fortune to be involved with even now. From the corporate world to multiple entrepreneur endeavors, it’s been a mostly lucrative, fun, and lesson-learning trip.  I now recognize that I sometimes learned more from the tough lessons than from the easy ones, but that may just be me. Being involved now in starting yet another company, an alternative energy “Small Wind” venture (www.WindPowerSystemsLLC.com) has only served to give me more energy, strength, and creativity …Much like graduating from college at 21 and facing the future feeling as though a gale force of positive momentum is at your back.

Whether it’s an element of the dreary economic environment or simply part of the late stage baby boomers getting older, I look around and see many of my brethren in somewhat the same position that I find myself in. We’re too young and healthy to have the desire to do anything but keep on keeping on. Life is still very much about hope, aspirations, love, family, and the desire to do something great with our lives. Just like being 21 again, except with a few aches and a lot of hard-earned experience behind us.

Life is grand and I’m positively grateful everyday for so many blessings from a loving family, their good health (and mine, as well), business and personal success, and the long-held drive to start and build new earth-friendly ventures.

I just wonder what I’ll do years from now when I eventually grow up. Now that’s an exciting thought.

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