At the moment I'm working with two 22 year-olds, both of whom are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, intelligent, confident, opinionated, clever and ambitious. They have ideas and dreams and theories and sometimes, sometimes, take themselves a little bit too seriously.
They've replaced a cynical 67 year-old (who fled to the Gold Coast with her long-lost high school sweetheart) and a funny, melancholy 56 year old (who fled to another job, for the same reason I'm leaving). One is divorced; the other a widow. They've had experiences and losses and hardships and had self-deprecating humour down to the finest art.
At 39, I'm half between these four women. I see what I was and what I could become. I can take myself a little bit too seriously and I can take the piss out of myself. I've had hardships but I still have dreams. I am confident, but through experience.
Ya know, I am starting to think that it's not such a bad thing to be 39 years-old.
But when are you ever the perfect age?
I don't think you can ever be the perfect age not unless you're completely at ease with yourself which seldom happens. Really, I remember myself being the same back then at their age...
My mom was 29 so long that I passed her up. Ba da bump.
Seriously, I think I was cruising pretty good from 30 to 35. I was a little less jaded than I am now and not quite as smart as I was when I was younger. I knew a whole lot more at 22 than I do now.
Yes, I thought I knew pretty much everything at 22 years old!
I don't think you can be perfectly happy with yourself but at the moment I feel pretty close to it. So I'll take it for now.