Happy Birthday aka 30 and Beyond!

In case you hadn't heard, today is my birthday and I turned 30!  Yikes!

I'm not big on celebrating my birthday.  For my 21st birthday, I bought a six of beer and drank with my friends and that's about the only thing I've ever done.  It's not that my birthday isn't worth celebrating, but that it feels like any other day.  Turning 29, felt much the same as turning 25.  So, I didn't get myself worked up.

That was until I turned 30.  This birthday definitely feels different.  The day itself was much the same but my thoughts took a different course.  I spent today thinking about my 20s; analyzing the things I did or didn't do, trying to understand why, and questioning what that said about me.  

Leading up to this point, over the last 6 months I've read numerous books and articles about masculinity and manhood; about what it means to be a Man and when a boy becomes a man.  There are many different ideas, here are a few that I've accepted: 1. Manhood isn't a biological phenomenon, but rather a state of mind; an energy that is actualized, 2. Since Manhood is a state of mind, it can be lost and must be held onto or "lived in" and 3. That boyhood is marked by the selfish pursuit of satisfying desires, while Manhood is marked by "becoming" for the sake of others.

As I think about my 20s, I feel as if I spent more time than I should pursuing selfish desires.  It's not that I didn't do for other people, but that I could do more and didn't because my own desires were more important.  I wasn't realizing my potential because I was stuck in habits of younger years and, as is often the case with our habits, I was too close to see it.

So, for the first time in a long time, I find myself celebrating my birthday, not because I've been alive for 30 years, but because turning 30 was a milestone that helped me stop and reflect on the past 10 years and on who I am and who I want to be.  Today was the birth of something new.

"God gave us the gift of life, it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well"

-Voltaire

**Thank you to everyone that wished me Happy Birthday, I'll make the next 10 even better!**