I am not sure it is due to it being a rainy day or something else, but I have been in my feels all day (Is that too Gen X of a statement?). What is on my mind is that I am approaching 50 years old and I question what my legacy is going to be after I am gone. It’s a melancholy thought but I feel like it is a rite of passage for middle aged adults. I want to be more than just some guy from New York that was in the military, did some fun stuff, went to college and grad school, and made people laugh.

            What do I want for my legacy? That’s a great question that has really made me think. There is a part of me that regrets not having children. On occasion the thought of being childless has caused me to experience those nagging, empty feelings of missing out. This post is not going to be a regret filled list so let me focus on some positives. I would like to have someone say that I helped them in a way that not only had an impact on their life, but I also made their life better. Part of being a middle-aged man is reflecting on the actions of my much younger self. Boy, was I a mess! Those stories for other posts.

            Life is strange. If it is one thing that I learned is that life is a process of constant change, adaption, and surprise. Many times, when I thought I was on one trajectory something would change and I would have to adapt to something new and unexpected. People come and go in and out of your life. Some of them break your heart others as Oscar Wilde said, improved my life by leaving it. I am sure everyone can relate to that statement.

           In my middle-aged male mind, I have reached one conclusion about my legacy. It is not done forming. In fact, I would say I am not even half way with leaving my mark on this world. There will be more sudden and unexpected changes in my life and I will have to adapt and incorporate whatever those changes happen to be. That’s life. I know there is so much I can offer the world. If you think about it, you have a lot to offer too. No one ever said that life was easy, but it will always be better when you are alive.

Don’t ever give up.