2 posts ago, Adam left the following comment, which I think deserves its own post that I could read again later for inspiration and not have to hunt down through the comments sections:

“Happy birthday late. Here’s my horoscope for you:

You ever think back to your teens and wish you’d had it more together and how if you could go back you’d do it better because you weren’t awake enough at the time but now you are? Or your (early) 20s?

Your 30s are your power years, if you’re awake. Your you years. Your superhero years. Project ahead to your 50s and imagine what you’ll say then looking back on now, how if you could go back (to now) you’d do it better because you’re more aware.

I say focus not on what you don’t have or what schedule you’re behind on. Wake up early and discover/define your power and hurl it/you into daring enterprises and helping people. I say turn 40 breathless.”

It got me thinking. And my thoughts were in this response:

“I ‘woke up’ senior year in high school, in the sense that I saw and was able to behave accordingly with the Big Picture. Before that I was always disappointed by people and spent much of my time wallowing in that disappointment. As far as doing things better, I kinda wish I hadn’t ditched Cirque du Soleil and gotten in the biggest trouble I’d ever gotten into in high school, but it’s become one of those events that changed me and prevented future stupid decisions, and strengthened my sense of integrity. So, yeah. Not much I would change as far as HS goes.

Now my 20s was kinda scary, in the sense that after college, it was all sort of a blur without midterms and finals and years in college to mark the passing of time. But I think I continued to learn vicariously and develop my sense of self.

One of the essays we had to write in high school German class (in the German language, obviously) had the topic “In 10 years, how would you see yourself now?” I can’t remember what I wrote. But I like your idea of projecting forward and retrospecting back to my 30s to write it how I’d want to remember it later.

Thank you, Adam.

P.S. See, you should comment more often.”