37

This post is a little late but, you know, kids ruin all semblance of free time in your life. When they do finally stop moving and fall asleep, you frantically try to clean up the messes they’ve been making for the last few hours, catch up on other chores, shovel food into your mouth, then crawl into a fetal position and scroll aimlessly on your phone for an hour or so before passing out. But everything is great here, how are you?

Anyway, back to what matters, me. I turned 37 a couple weeks ago. As a kid, 37 sounded middle aged. Now, if my wife says 37 is middle aged, I get very defensive, call her middle aged (even though she’s 9 months younger than me), and likely leave the room very dramatically. I can’t be middle aged if I am still a child.

I think 37 might be one of the most insignificant ages out there. When you are in your early 30s, you can still pretend you are late 20s. When you are 35, it feels like more of a milestone, halfway to 40! 36? Well, you’ve started the downward slide. 38-39? You are almost 40!!

But 37? Who cares about 37. Well, besides my right knee because basically the day I turned 37, it started to hurt. My body told me that this is what life is now, weird things hurting for no apparent reason (outside of my years of general inactivity catching up to me), and it’s just something I deal with now.

How should I feel about 37? I mean, I have two kids under 16 months, so I sure don’t feel middle aged. But I’m certainly not young any more. I’m closer to 50 than I am 20, which when I type it out makes me want to cry a little. My age 50 post may have a very different (and more somber and weepy) feel than this one does.

Perhaps I’ll feel something more when I turn 40, but as of now, 37 is just an age. I’ll keep chasing my kids around, assuming my knee doesn’t start sensing incoming storms and “acting up” (which is an old person phrase if I’ve ever heard one). I should probably start eating better, but salad is just the worst. And I’ll keep watching crappy movies (Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters in two days) to fill time. Maybe 38 will be different. I’ll let you know next year, but it’s Godzilla versus Kong time. Because that’s not something a middle-aged man would do, right?