I, for the record, don't mind being about to be 38. Except for the part where it terrifies me that I haven't done enough yet.

Which is why the death of Dana Reeve, at 44, hit me so hard this morning. Lung cancer, and she was a lifelong non-smoker.

For knitters, how's this for your next project (PDF).

you should get started on paying off that therapy bill.

Girlfriend, I'm never having it.

Fact is, I started out feeling like an underacheiver when I was as much of a prodigy as I was ever going to be. Now that I'm a more average specimen, well now it's just more true, isn't it? Where's my PhD? My seat on advisory boards? My black belt (okay, maybe I can pull that off next year, but I still won't think I'm a good enough black belt, I can assure you)? My two children? My house? My three dogs? My...I dunno. Other stuff that I'm not even sure I want.

That's just how it goes. I tried to push my sister into doing stuff because she had a three year lead on being a whizkid. When she refused to read the bible at age 7 I knew I had a fight on my hands. But she graduated summa cum laude from McGill and got a full ride to Cambridge and then some of a ride there for her PhD.

God, what if she's my greatest achievement?

Yikes.

To clarify, I don't think 38 is old, per se, and I have no doubt I'll be fine once I go through the gradual increments of getting there year by year. The mental jump of adding 5 years all at once is the weird part.

Also, in my mind I am still 28 and expect to be for a while. I think it is my One True Age.

What's fun about being in school is that I can guarantee my life will be drastically different five years from now. However, I'm hoping it's also drastically different from five years ago.

Also, in 5 years I'll be 38. Ugh.

I'm with Calli. I'm 38 and it's been a pretty great year thus far.

you feel guilt for not having stuff you don't even want and you won't get into therapy?

mmm ok.

I am no age. It doesn't matter. Somehow I separate it from all the time the psycho part of my head thinks I've wasted.

I find my feeling about my age differs with where I am in my life. The last couple of years have been difficult in several ways, and I had times where I felt old. This year is off to a much better start and the process of turning 50 no longer feels bad or final and I feel younger. So go figure.

OK, fly-by-ing here to share a strip from Questionable Content (OMG so horribly addictive) because of the Buffistas-ness of it all: [link] Although it strikes me as too on-the-money not to have been linked to from here in the past.

It's like the pictorial representation of the genesis of AIFG!