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A Letter to My 60-Year Old Self
Looking ahead 30 years into the future, what do I see?
Dear 60,
You recently turned 30. We are talking days ago. I am writing to remind you about your 30-year old self and forecast how I envision these next 30 years transpiring. I promise to be blunt. Tell me if I am wrong.
First, you have probably discovered by now that you are not special.
I know, as a millennial everyone told you that you had a special talent or gift growing up, but we need to be real. By age 30 we did not detect anything uniquely special or extraordinary, so you probably experienced more of the same. Most artists, athletes, and other prodigies peak by age 30, so numerous ships have probably sailed for us already. Maybe you made your mark in business or perhaps betrayed convention and actually became a writer. Did you publish that book you always blabbed about? Odds are you are ordinary and above-average at best.
Similar to how you failed to become the next Allen Iverson as you prognosticated in your 8th grade yearbook, you probably did not become the Warren Buffett of your profession either. Although I am sure you did well. You were always smart and could compete in the classroom and the workforce. But did you become a CEO? Did you start your own prosperous business? Did you take the lead in fighting for a cause? I doubt it.
Business and being special aside, by age 60 I am sure you witnessed many people disappear from your life.
Hell, we already experienced this by age 30. In the past decades, you have probably only seen many of the people you once called “close friends” virtually on Facebook and other social media sites. Some may have even deleted you from their social networks. Why is anyone’s guess. Maybe humanity even invented a new way to socially interact from afar — a virtual reality form of social media.
Regardless, bonds fade. Like drifters, people will come and go. As you have probably seen, except for the few friends and family who actually care about you, people now only reach out if you can give them something like a job reference or referral (or, I guess, help their children at your age!).
