You Say It's Your Birthday

As I turned 38 this past weekend, I was asked the usual question: “How does it feel?” My answer is always simple, that you’re as young as you feel. I’m grateful to be in good physical shape, and hope to keep that up in the year ahead. I like this number, 38 – it’s a reminder that I’m still plenty young, yet also old enough to have some of what we like to call experience. If I were a lawyer, I’d probably have just made partner. If I were a baseball player, I’d probably have just retired.

I think that birthdays are also a good time for thinking about our own development as individuals, and whether we’re moving in the right direction, toward the people we want to be. I am very proud of the fact that I’ve made service toward others a priority in my life so far. I’m proud of myself for being there for family, friends and students, and also for succeeding in two different careers. I think my heart is in the right place, and that is probably the most important thing I need in life.

But I do see room for improvement. I see a need for greater confidence, as I wonder sometimes whether I’m selling myself short with what I can accomplish in my career and in life itself. I also see a need for less stress, as I tend to let the smaller things eat me up inside and lose the ability to roll with the punches. I know that worrying has never actually made my life better, yet I still struggle with the temptation to fret over far too much.

I look forward to working on these pieces during the months ahead, and to build upon my own experiences and emotions to lead a life of fulfillment, hope and happiness. As I do so, I can find many notable role models among those who were born on the same day as me. January 17th is a crowded day among the notable birthdays. We have Ben Franklin and Anton Chekhov. We have Muhammad Ali and James Earl Jones. We have Michelle Obama.

The famous birthday web sites don’t list my name. Kid Rock has got January 17th, 1971 locked up. My alter ego. As I think about why Kid Rock is a famous man and I’m not, and as I scan through the New York Times Magazine photo spread of Obama staff appointees and see so many who are younger than me, I am tempted to feel deflated.

But that’s missing the point. I don’t need fame to be successful. I just need to know deep inside that I have done what I should, what I can, for the purposes I find most important – my God, my family, my fellow man, myself.

This weekend, as we await this new moment of hope in America, I look within and see a man who is a making his way quite nicely through life, but who can – and will – do even more. Sounds like a pretty good 38 to me.