Seriously, what can really be said about a late generational boomer rapidly approaching his 60’s that hasn’t already been said on any other blog, website, facebook post, tweet or magazine article? Probably nothing, except none of those were about me and my own life experiences.
Let me start at the beginning, okay maybe not all the way back to actually coming out of the womb (who needs to relive that am I right?). But growing up in the 1970’s, when I was a much shorter than average teenager thru most of high school, trying my best to fit in & be a part of the ‘cool club’. And as hard as I tried, I never quite succeeded. Probably due to a lot of factors I’m sure – I mentioned my lack of height already right? Having freckles, straight brown hair and coming from a lower middle class family living in a one bathroom house in the middle of nowhere far away from most of my friends, well none of those obviously helped either. But the blame actually without a doubt rests all on my shoulders. I guess I believed too much in Casey Kasem?, when every week at the end of his show he would say “keep reaching for the stars”.
Truth is, I always fell in love with the unattainable back then, the homecoming princess with the mouth full of braces, the perky cheerleader whose face was on every other page of the yearbook, or the classmate who had obviously developed much earlier than most other girls. Looking back, I’m not sure if I was really “after them”, or just wanted the feeling of belonging? Either way, I was doomed. Fortunately for me, my growth spurt finally hit in the latter part of my junior year. But by then it was too late, even today I will always be thought of as that short, funny guy. Looking back, I guess it could be a lot worse?
Let me go ahead and warn you right now, in this blog there will be a lot of going back and forth from yesteryear to the events of today. So if you’re not a fan of flashbacks and how they may pertain to my present day experiences, this may not be a great blog to follow. I say this because in many ways, I’m as lost now as I was back then. Not knowing what life has in front of me, and where do I go from here? Seriously I’m only a couple of years away from turning 60, and I find myself in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment (yep, there’s that one bath again just like my childhood), and the only thing I rightfully own is my furniture and my clothes. I’m still making payments on my vehicle, however luckily I have very little credit card debt (so at least I got that going for me?). And since my mother passed away over a year ago, I suppose that I am somewhat fortunate that I have a good deal of money in both investments and savings. But still alone, still grasping, and still reaching for those damn stars!
Next blog, I’ll tell you how I got here!
Flashbacks are necessary and appreciated.