50 Years and boy do I gotta tell you.

Where do I start...

   I just turned the BIG 50 this year.

   I remember when people used to think 50 was OLD.💀 Shit, they were damn near close to death if not dead. But times have changed.
You've heard the saying, "50 is the new 30". I certainly don't feel 50, in fact, I look and feel pretty decent for 50. 
                                 
                                      Except for this Beer Belly

                                           * not my Belly, LOL

   So, thinking back about it. I never gave it much of a thought what 50 would be like. Back then it was what your parents were. It was just a number, it was only that, a number. Up until a few years ago I never really gave it much thought at all. Always joking with friends or family that, "I'll probably be dead before I get there".
   I know, joking about death is pretty morbid. But for those know me and those whom get to know me. My sense of humor is rather skewed or slightly wacked. But death is funny sometimes, not at a funeral anyway. Well maybe? I guess it depends on who's funeral it is. But I digress.  I never gave it much thought what 50 would feel like.

      
I remember myself and my wife taking a vacation some years ago. We decided on
Key West, we had never been there before.
But now it is our favorite spot on the planet.
If you've never, please go, I highly recommend it.


On this trip, we happened to meet some really nice people. Some of which we never saw again and others whom we are still close friends with to this day. On one of our many bar crawl moments through town (and there were many), we met two different couples.

      
One couple was newly married, slightly younger than we were. They were 20 somethings on what sounded like a first vacation as a married couple. Oh, so sickeningly in love and everything was just "AMAZING", Yuck!!! LOL. 

The other couple was slightly older than us. They were in their upper 40's and the husband was turning 50. As a gift the wife decided to take him on a trip for his 50th. He was lamenting turning 50 and seemed like he was sort of depressed that his life was more than half over. After a few beers and great music he realized life is what you make it.  

   I look at him now and laugh about how he seemed so down, but I can understand people going through what would be considered a mid-life crisis. But since I was about 35, I said to myself, "What can be so bad."
Your on vacation, in Key West, your kids aren't with you and there is music, booze and your wife. What more can you want??  OK!! I know plenty of you out there got different answers for that one. We had a great time and living our 30's like we were in our 20's, just not sickeningly newly married phase like the first couple. We were somewhere in between the two.

Making me wonder, is this something I am going to be like come 50??

   Well, I pondered that thought for a bit and was like, HELL NO!! 
I don't want to be coaxed into 50, I wanna embrace it. Take it head on and look forward to it.  But that was 15 years in the future and it wasn't on my radar. But knowing when it did come, I want to enjoy it like I was 25.
   Part of that was, my wife and myself going out and doing those things as a couple. Go on vacation more, find like minded friends that had no kids or kids that were older and would allow those to party and enjoy life as it comes. Not that we didn't have friends, we had many, but they were in a different phase in life where their kids absorbed their time and only got together occasionally. Not like we did when we were younger and a little more care free. 

But that was to change on that trip as well.



We met friend that trip, it grew into a friendship of nearly 15 years. Someone I now call my brother. He was a couple of years older than we were, he and his girlfriend, along with the group he was associated with were of the same age. They knew how to have fun, to do the spur of the moment things that come up and enjoy life as it comes.




Right then and there, it was one of the real reasons that made me feel like, there is no fear of 50. You can be as young as you feel and to not feel like I was on the road to my life being halfway. My 40's were as good as any time that I had in my life, I was embracing it.
But as my 40's were coming to a close, I again starting thinking would I be any different once I turned 50. People close to me would ask, "Are you looking forward to it". I would always reply with a resounding, "YES, I'AM.

   So, with now that infamous day come and gone. It wasn't much different than any other birthday. I was asked multiple times by my wife, "Do you want a party, I would like to go BIG for you 50th".
I would always tell her, "No, I would like for "US", to go on a trip. If your gonna go big, why not a trip somewhere great."
She was like, "Wherever you want to go, we will go." So, I thought, maybe someplace different. Someplace we have never been.  So I thought, "Hey Nashville is a cool place, I have heard great things about it." or "We just got our passports, let go someplace outside the country, maybe Europe?"
   But, I don't know, maybe I am a creature of habit. Maybe, it's that I like that feeling I get when we are going to the Keys. But maybe life is cyclical?  Wouldn't it be just right, if it all goes back to where this trip to 50 began. Where ever that may be, one thing is for sure...

50 is just a number.